Outstanding Sighisoara - where the time has stopped...

We arrived to Sighisoara in the late afternoon. This time we did not book an apartment, but a hotel - Hotel Central Park - located just a few meters away from the entrance to the Old Town. When we arrived, it was still raining, however the moment the rain became lighter, we immediately left the hotel and went for the sightseeing of the last inhabited medieval citadel of Europe.  

In fact the history of Sighișoara dates to the 12the century, when the King of Hungary invited German craftsmen and merchants known as the Transylvanian Saxons to settle in and defend the frontier of his realm. Sighișoara became one of the most important cities of Transylvania. Today it is one of the most important touristic attractions of Romania and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We entered through the main gate just next to the 14th century Clock Tower. It was beautiful and I immediately felt in love with Sighișoara. This tower controlled the main gate of the citadel, but until 1556 it was also a town hall.

We continued our walk through Sighișoara's cobbled streets. I totally loved this city where time has stopped. I really had impression I moved in time, everything looked so authentic. I couldn't help, but imagine how life looked like here a few hundred years ago. We made a tour around admiring houses, church and defensive towers - each of the had the name of a different craft guild that we responsible for its maintenance during the peaceful time and for the defense in the times of war. In fact the local craftsmen built a very strong defense system including the 14 towers (such as Tailors' Tower, Butchers' Tower etc.). Only 9 of them survived until today.

 

The city was so colorful, so pleasant, so magical, so fairy-tale-like...

Another attraction of Sighișoara is the house of the famous Vlad Dracula, who was born here. But since this place had very bad reviews (basically nothing interesting to see inside), we decided to admire it only from the outside.

I was stunned how many places were reminding of the German history of this town - names of streets and squares were displayed in German (apart from Romanian).

 Sighișoara is very small, it can be perfectly visited in one afternoon. But it's so lovely and charming place that in the morning we decided to come back for another walk. And actually we noticed something what we missed on the previous day - a climb to the clock tower. The views very just beautiful. In the clock tower there was also a small museum depicting a bit the history of Sighișoara.