March 18 to 19, 2026
Sighisoara is in central Romania, but is closer to the edge of Transylvania (1), and the historic borders of Hungary. The Hungarian rulers of the region invited Saxon Germans to the area for defense in the 1200s. These Saxons soon became the merchant class, and established a number of Saxon cities, including Sighisoara (2).
The citadel atop a modest hill contains the charming old town. Each of the guilds built a defensive tower, often trying to outdo each other in size and style. Of the original 19 Towers, 14 remain. We dined at the birthplace (in 1453) of Vlad Ţepeş, Count Dracul (3). A nice walk after dark lead along the city walls.
Next morning, we climbed the clock tower, which also contains a museum. One of the docents seemed please to chat about the town's history and the exhibits (4). The town seems to have a simple naming convention: the towers are named after the guilds which built them, the house with the antlers is called Casa cu Cerb (Antler house), the church on the hill is Biserica din Deal (Church on the Hill).
Many of the frescoes in the Church on the Hill (completed in 1488) have faded, but St. George slaying the dragon is still quite clear (5). The crypt contains an actual bone-filled coffin that is illuminated from inside the vault in a rather macabre manner. Rising from the crypt, I heard someone singing. The guide/sexton had encouraged a young woman to sing on the altar to test the acoustics.
The final stop was at the town's Monastery Church, originally associated with a Dominican Monastery. Now a Lutheran Church, the woman who sold us a ticket asked if we wanted to read about the church or "hear my words." Preferring the latter, she gave a detailed history of the church and quizzed us on which guilds the various crests represented.
Driving Northeast, we passed towns with churches for each of the three communities: Orthodox (Romanian), Catholic (Hungarian), and Lutheran (Saxon). The architectural style usually made clear which was which. Horse carts and stork nests were frequent sights. Reaching the Carpathians at dusk, we did not tarry, with clouds and light snow in the Tihuța Pass (6), marking the border between Transylvania and Moldavia.
(1) The name means "beyond the woods." The area was "beyond" the thickly wooded Carpathians when viewed from the Roman provinces south of the Danube.
(2) Reflecting the multiethnic composition of the area, the town has different names: Sighisoara (Romanian), Schassburg (German), and Segesvár (Hungarian). Historically, the Hungarians were the land-owning class, Germans the merchant class, and Romanians the agricultural workers. When the Romanian state was founded in the mid-1800s, it consisted of Wallachia (south of the Carpathians) and Moldavia (east of the Carpathians). Queen Marie of Romania attended the post-World War I Versailles conference, convincing the delegates to transfer Transylvania from the remnants of the Austro-Hungarian empire to Romania. While the area retains a large Hungarian-speaking population, few Saxons remain. The West German government paid the Hungarian government to let some of them leave during the cold war, with emigration accelerating after 1989.
(3) The name means "son of the dragon," a noble title at the time. He fought against the Turks, earning the name Ţepeş, (meaning impaler) for his treatment of enemies. Bram Stoker used the name Dracula for his fictional vampire in the late 1800s The town takes full advantage of the connection, including a kitschy exhibit in the birth room complete with howling wolves and red-lighted coffins.
(4) She had a perspective on contemporary American politics: "Liberty is important, we all need to speak out." Interesting thought from someone who grew up under communism.
(5) While I usually prefer a camera to capture the colors as close to reality as possible, my phone camera greatly enhanced the visibility of the frescoes.
(6) Sometimes known as Borgo Pass in English Atlases, Bram Stoker used the name as the location of "Dracula's Castle." While no castle ever existed here, a hotel does bear the name.
A walk after dark in Sighisoara:
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