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Sighisoara hotels
Sighisoara Highlights
Sighisoara "the
Pearl of Transylvania"
is without any doubt the best preserved strengthened city in
Transylvania, with a beautiful and authentic medieval architecture.
It is one of the last medieval towns still inhabited in Europe. The
medieval fortress was built on a hill surrounded by forests.
Sighisoara always fascinate its visitors by its picturesque lanes,
houses, the bastions, the towers, the churches; moreover, it is the
birthplace of a history hero, the legendary Dracula or Vlad Impaler.
The narrow street with steps rolling up of towards the fortress, the
towers of the cathedral, the covered staircase in a tunnel, the
pediments arched with mediaeval houses keeps and make a rich and
single external medieval museum. |
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Historic buildings
The most famous tower of Sighisoara, which actually became a bench
mark of the city, is the Tower of Clock, so known under the
name of the Tower of the Council, because it functioned like such
between the 14th-16th centuries.
The Tower of Clock is 64 m high. It has four turrets and a wood walk
covered for the observation of the last stage. Built at the 14th
century, with thick walls of 2 m, they were supposed to defend the
principal door of the citadel, the ammunition dump, and the tresor
of the city. The four turrets symbolized the legal autonomy of the
Town council which could apply, if necessary, the death penalty. In
1648, a clock was put at the top of the tower. The movement of the
wood figurines symbolize the days of the week. For example, the
soldier Tuesday, the day of Mars and Venus are upright during
Friday. A midnight a figurine leave his slit and are shown to
announce the next day. Others figurines of the mechanism of clock,
cut in the tree of lime and a bright way coloured, are brought
closer a lapse of time; characterizes the mythology or of the
various symbols, i.e. the Goddess of Peace with the olive branch,
the Goddess of Justice with the balance, the gods of war with the
sword, two angels symbolizing the Day and Night etc. The arrow of
the tower ends in a small gold sphere. In top, there is a weather
cock, that, turned over by airstreams, predicted time. During the
Middle Ages, the Tower of Clock would be defended by 29 regular
soldiers. |
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Since 1899 the
Clock Tower shelters the Museum of History. It proposes
also a Medieval Pharmacy of 1670, the interesting
artifacts of ethnography, a section of beautiful arts and a
collection of watches. In 1780, close to the Tower of Clock was
built a covered walk the passage called Passage of the Old
Ladies, which would protect from the falls of snow or rain. The
Citadel was built at the 12th century; it was reinforced and
prolonged at the 15th century.Today it counts 164 public houses
and 13 buildings. The solid and differently coloured houses are
aligned along the narrow streets; around them a wall of defense
of 1 km length with 14 turns, of which only nine were preserved
to date. |
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Most impressive are the Tower of
the Shoe-makers, the Tower of the Tailors and the
Tower of the Tinners. Close to the Tower of Clock, there is the
Church of the Monastery built in the Gothic style. It incarne
all the changes undergone by the city with the length of time. It
formerly belonged to the Dominican monks who lived in a monastery
placed at the north of the church. The monastery was demolished in
1888 and its place taken by the town hall. |
Close to the church, there is the
House of Vlad Dracula, where Vlad the Impaler lived between 1431
to 1435 before accepting the throne of Wallachia.
On the higher platform of the Church, one can find another
characteristic of medieval architecture, namely the Wooden Covered
Staircase. It was built at the 17th century to facilitate and
protect the schoolboys and the Christians of the church. In the
beginning the staircase had 300 steps, but after 1849, their numbers
was tiny room to 175. The Church is a building representative of the
Gothique style in Transylvania, it is placed on the School Hill (429
m high) and dominates the city. Its construction started in 1330 and
lasted almost 200 years finishing in 1525. After the Reform of 1547,
it became the principal church of the Saxons inhabitants of
Sighisoara, which had changed Roman Catholicism in Lutheranism. The
church holds paintings of value made between 1483-1488 and of the
pieces of furniture in the style of art of Renessance. Four
statuettes cut in the stone placed below the altarpiece make the
well-known composition Offers of Maggi. In the anterooms are three
blazons cut in wood. |
| The only known
Roman crypt in Transylvania can be seen with the Church, below
the chorus and dating from the 13th century.On the same side
as the House of Vlad Dracul, there is the House of Stag.
The life was not easy in the City Higher around the Fortress
mainly because of the lack of sources of water and the
provisions. By comparison, the living conditions in the Lower
City in particular in times of peace, was better the
inhabitants of the Citadel were accustomed to living in times
of peace in the lower city or one can see today houses of the
17th century.Each house has its own history, as is the case of
that which belonged to Johann Schuller von Rosenthal, a Mayor
of the city, which was decapitated because of its dishonesty. |
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On the Lower City (which is less
picturesque than the Citadel) on the footbridge on the river of Mare
Tarnava, one can see the Romanian Orthodox Cathedral , built
in the Byzantin style in 1937.In the Eastern part of the city, in
the medium of the cemetery, there is an obelisk. Among other worthy
architectonic monuments to be seen in Sighisoara must be mentioned
the Venetian House on the Museum Square, which dates from the
16th century and was rebuilt in Venetian the Gothique style.Around
the principal place of the town of many frontages can hold your
attention, the historical heart of the city being very rich it is
hard to retain another place which can support the comparison. |
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