How we spent a great time at the best preserved citadel in Europe – Sighisoara, Romania

These colourful old streets within the citadel of Sighisoara will always stay in my mind as one of the places where I would like to stay forever. I loved everything in this town an not only, Romania is really wonderful!

A small town somewhere in Transylvania

It was rainy when we arrived in the small Transylvanian town of Sighisoara. We had booked a place to stay – Casa Lia. It is a house in the old part of the city. We left our car outside of the citadel and went to find our hosts. Marius and Lia were waiting for us and Marius helped me bring our luggage.

Strada Cositorarilor in Sighisoara

In all this hurry the rest of the daylight had gone and we decided to find a place for dinner. Lia enthusiastically but in Romanian gave us directions to a nice place – Alte post (The old post). The menu was like the usual for the Balkans – a small hell for vegetarians. But for me it was great with so much meat. You have to try for dessert the local traditional doughnuts with cream and jam.

[info]Just before the entrance to the citadel there is a parking. It is paid during the day and free for the night. We arrived in the evening so there was no one to pay to and in the morning we saw a note saying that our car had been there since 7 am. Actually in the morning we could leave without paying but I insisted to find someone to pay to because it was not expensive at all – 5 lei for 1 day (about 1,20 euro).[/info]

The evening went imperceptibly and we decided to take a rest from this exhausting day. Our day had started with a visit of salt mines of Turda.

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Breakfast in Sighisoara

I woke up with the joyful feeling that the weather will be sunny with beautiful, small and fluffy clouds. It was almost like this. Our great hosts were ready with coffee and tea and Marius went to the new center of the town for gogoși (doughnuts) or covrigi (pretzel). These traditional Romanian pastries are delicious and we like them very much.

The town of Sighisoara

The town of Sighişoara is amazing. It is maybe the best preserved citadel in Europe still inhabited. The citadel is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The place astonishes with its numerous towers and old-looking houses.

Old-looking houses

Sigihsoara central square

Sighisoara citadel

For me the most interesting thing was the citadel. With its colourful buildings, nine towers (in the Middle Ages there were 14 towers) and stone streets you can feel the European Middle ages.

Towers of Sighisoara citadel, Transylvania, Romania

The clock tower

The tallest building inside the citadel is the clock tower. With its 64 meters it can be seen from almost every part of the town. The wooden clock on the top was put there in 1604. Nowadays the tower is a history museum.

The clock tower of Sighisoara in the background

The clock tower in Sighisoara

The real story of Vlad Dracula

Vlad Tepes (Vlad III Dracul, son of Vlad II Dracul*) was born in the winter of 1431 (December 7^th – Saggitarius) in Sighisoara. At those times the town was under Hungarian rule. So on every street we can see signs suggesting to the tourists that this is the place where Dracula was born. There is even a sign leading to what is claimed to be the room where he was born. But don’t be very naïve, there isn’t strong evidence where exactly that dreadful ruler started his life. Most probably Dracula had not been a vampire but what he had done was far scarier than the vampire stories. Probably this is the reason Bram Stoker used him as a character in his book Dracula.

[info]The name Dracul comes from The Order of the Dragon whose member Vlad Tepes had been. Dracul is the Romanian word for dragon and devil[/info]

Climbing the covered staircase

On the top of the hill, surrounded by the citadel walls, is an evangelic church and a cemetery. They are reachable by old stone stairs covered with a wooden canopy. Next to the cemetery is the Rope Makers’ tower.

the Rope Makers’ tower

The cemetery

Outside the citadel

The lanes of old Sighisoara

My stay in Sighisoara was short and I would be happy to go to this beautiful and calm town again for a longer time. Although many tourists complain there are not enough attractions and entertainment, I have a passion to medieval towns and I really enjoy them.