Sighisoara is Romania’s best-preserved medieval town, a genuine Transylvanian tourist pearl, transformed in recent decades into a major attraction for Romanian and foreign tourists on holiday or traveling in the center of the country.
The city located in Mures county has a population of about 30,000 inhabitants and magnetizes its visitors with its historical center, included in the UNESCO World Heritage Site. Sighisoara was founded by German settlers (craftsmen and merchants) who arrived in Transylvania at the initiative of the Hungarian king Géza II. These were later known as the “Transylvanian Saxons.” The first documentary mention of the village comes from 1280, under the name Castrum Sex, which speaks about a settlement founded on the ruins of a former Roman castrum.
First fortified in 1350, Sighisoara has had a tumultuous history, including the birth of Vlad the Impaler (in 1431) and numerous attacks by various nations and groups, by plague epidemics or fires. More or less, all these interesting histories are found today in buildings and monuments in the old center of the village. For first-time travelers, here are 10 places to visit in Sighisoara, a mini-guide regarding what to do and what to see in the medieval jewel of Romania.
10 places to see in Sighisoara, Romania
In case you want to spend a few hours in the middle of nature, you must know that on the Breite plateau, near Sighisoara, there is the Breite Reservation. It’s a superb area (133 hectares) forested with multi-secular oaks and sessile oaks, the best preserved of its kind in central and eastern Europe.
It is the place where you will discover trees of up to 600-700 years of history and many species of birds and animals (lizards, woodpeckers, bats, butterflies, etc.). To reach the meadow of the Breite Reservation (walking or by bike), you must follow the route starting from Ana Ipătescu Street and continue the path to the forest, to the plateau area (marked with red stripe, then, after 6 km, a blue stripe).
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