Enchanting Sighişoara

How do you describe Sighişoara? My fellow Cluj Fulbrighter and I debated what words were best to capture Sighişoara.

Lovely. Yes, but Oradea better fits the word lovely. Oradea was elegant. That’s not necessarily Sighişoara.

Magical? Yes. It felt like you were on a movie set. And we found out we almost were. The English couple we chatted with over breakfast said there was a film crew in town looking for extras for a movie.

Beautiful? Indeed. The old town of Sighişoara is gorgeous.

We finally settled on enchanting. At every turn we were charmed by the cobblestone streets, the brightly painted buildings, and the fantastic towers along the 14^th century walls. UNESCO  put it on the Word Heritage list for good reasons.

Pictures don’t do it justice. But here’s my attempt to show enchanting Sighişoara.

Church of the Dominican Monastery (Biserica Manastirii)

Starting in 1556 the Church of the Dominican Monastery (Biserica Manastirii) was the main Lutheran church of the Saxons who lived here. It is located next to the clock tower (Turnul cu Ceas).

The clock tower contains revolving figurines in its 1648 clock. The tower itself dates from 1280.

Clock tower (Turnul cu Ceas) from the square

Figurines in the clock tower

Clock tower from lower town

Piaţa Cetăţii

Shoemaker’s Tower

At various points along the old walls are towers. Each guild within the old city was in charge of that tower.

Church on the Hill from the top of the Clock Tower

172 stairs to Church on the Hill

Up on the hill above the town is the aptly named Church on the Hill. One takes a long set of stairs up to see this church.    In the church is an inscription written in 1488. My guide book dates the church to 1345. Outside of the church is a lovely German cemetary.

Church on the Hill

Sighişoara is the birthplace of Vlad Ţepeş, aka Vlad the impaler, aka
Dracula. On the picture of the clock tower above, his is the bright yellow house on the right.

Bust of Vlad Tepes

Other than an odd bust, a few tacky signs and equally tacky souvenirs,
the town does not make too much of this. Thankfully, as far as I’m concerned.

I wonder what they serve here

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It’s too gorgeous a town to be taken over by a silly legend.

Surprisingly, as we were sitting on a bench by one of the churches we did see Dracula pass by  and go into his birthplace. Laura got this picture of him.

Dracula, headed home