Sighisoara

Sighisoara is considered to be the most beautiful and complete medieval architectural assembly of Romania as well as the most beautiful inhabited citadel throughout Europe. The museum-town of Sighisoara offers the modern visitor some rare opportunity of retrospection into a medieval atmosphere of past centuries. Its building is supposed to have started in 1191 A.D. The Citadel is made of 164 houses and 13 public edifices. Each building might be considered a monument. On the crossing of the two main streets of the citadel there is the Citadel Square, a market place that was also used in the Middle Ages for public trials; in its middle there used to be a "pile of infamy", a stone column with two iron rings where witches or criminals were tortured; there can still be visited a torture room at the bottoms of the Clock Tower.

The Citadel shelters some completely astonishing monuments one should not miss. The Clock Tower is 64 m high and has the shape of a rectangular prism with 4 levels and a balcony that provides a superb view over the city. It shelters a museum of the Sighisoara's old life. A wall with 9 defensive towers surrounds the old citadel. Other mostly interesting spots here include the Dominican Monastery Church, built around 1298 A.D., in Gothic style; the Church on the Hill, built in 1345 and dedicated to Saint Nicholas, with rare pieces of sculpture and religious pictures; the "covered stairs", built in 1662 and completely wooden; the "House with Antlers", built in the late Renaissance style, with paneling and fully painted rooms. On the opposite river bank from the citadel, there is the Orthodox church, a much newer, vast and elegant building.

The so-called "Vlad Dracul House" (built in 1431-1435 A.D.) is considered of special interest, as it is supposed to be the place where Vlad Dracul (Vlad the Impaler's father) lived for a while, respectively where Vlad the Impaler was born and raised for a few years. It nowadays hosts a restaurant.