Medieval citadel of Sighișoara

The medieval atmosphere of the Transylvanian fortresses in the past can be almost fully revived by visiting the beautiful Sighişoara fortress, included in the global UNESCO patrimony, and we invite you to join us.
By following the track beaten by the knights and traders in the past, we will pass through a land with green hills filled with the inviting scents of the field flowers nesting German villages, ruins of fortresses, and fortified churches. We reach Podişul Târnavelor (The Plateau of Târnavelor) and we discover Saschiz, renowned in the past for the famous guilds of shoemakers, carpenters, and painters.
Saschiz offers - through the beauty of its architectural monuments - an extraordinary and unique alternative for tourists. This status has been recognised by including this commune on the list of German fortifications in 1999. Out of the fortifications left there is the evangelic church built at the end of the 15th century on the place of a 13th-century basilica. This, together with the tower and with the peasant's citadel on the hill nearby, have often served as a refuge for the locals during the hectic history of the locality.
From Saschiz we travel to Sighişoara, one of the few inhabited fortress-towns in the world, built by the German colonists, which best preserves in Romania the elements specific to the medieval universe.
By stepping towards the citadel, we enter the main gate, under the town's symbol - the Clock Tower, and we enter an atemporal space. The Clock Tower (64 metres high) has four levels and a balcony from where a special panorama can be admired over the old burg. Nearby, there is the church of the former Dominican Monastery, where we will admire rare sculptures, religious paintings, and oriental carpets of great artistic value from the 16th and the 17th centuries.
Inside the actual citadel, we admire the house in which Vlad Ţepeş, ruler of Vallachia, was born, become famous worldwide due to the legend of Count Dracula.

Afterwards, we admire Casa Veneţiană (The Venetian House) and Casa cu Cerb (The Stag House) and we reach the central square of the citadel where trials and ruthless executions took place in the past. By strolling on the narrow stone paved streets, we admire under the fairy-like lamps, the 500-year old houses, nicely painted and ornated with flowers at the windows and then we climb the 175 covered stairs of Scara Şcolarilor (The Students' Staircase), in order to reach the highest point of the citadel, where Biserica din Deal (the Church on the Hill) is located. From here we will enjoy the view over the entire Sighişoara and we will return, by following the route of the citadel walls, having a total length of 930 metres, by the old defensive system formed of the towers and ramparts protected by the craftsmen guilds of that time, in front of the Clock Tower.
The old citadel of Sighişoara, holding approx. 150 inhabited houses, comes to life every year in the last weekend of July, on the occasion of "Medieval Sighişoara" Festival. During three days, knights in armours, witches, maidens dressed in costumes of the period, invite you to dance, while minstrels charm you at street corners. Plays are improvised and several other shows take place. For a moment, the citadel relives the events of its period of glory and becomes scanty for the thousands of foreign and Romanian tourists who wish to take part in this important cultural event.