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SIGHISOARA |
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A forbidding silhouette of battlements and needle spires looms over
SIGHISOARA (Schässburg to the Saxons and Segesvár to the Hungarians) as
the sun descends behind the hills of the Târnava Mare valley, and it
seems fitting that this was the birthplace of Vlad Tepes, "The Impaler"
- the man known to so many as Dracula . Visually archaic even by
Romanian standards, Sighisoara makes the perfect introduction to
Transylvania, especially as the eastbound Dacia, Traianus and Pannonia
express trains all stop here, making a convenient break in the long
journey between Budapest and Bucharest.
The Town
The old town or citadel dominates the newer quarters from a rocky massif
whose slopes support a jumble of ancient, leaning houses, their windows
overlooking the steps leading up from Piata Hermann Oberth to the main
gateway. Above rises the mighty Clock Tower , where each day one of
seven wooden figures emerges from the belfry on the stroke of midnight.
The tower was raised in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries when
Sighisoara became a free town controlled by craft guilds, each of which
had to finance the construction of a bastion and defend it during
wartime. It has subsequently been rebuilt after earthquakes and a fire
in 1676. Originally a Saxon town known as Castrum Sex (Fort Six),
Sighisoara grew rich on the proceeds of trade with Moldavia and
Wallachia, as the Clock Tower's museum attests (Mon 10am-3.30pm, Tues-Fri
9am-6pm, Sat & Sun 9am-4pm). Most of the burghers were Magyar or Saxon,
and the Romanians - or Vlachs as they were then called - became inferior
citizens in Transylvanian towns following edicts passed in 1540. These
excluded Vlachs from public office and forbade them to live in town
houses with chimneys or with windows overlooking the streets, and also
prohibited them from wearing furs, embroidered dress, shoes or boots. To
the right of the Clock Tower stands the Dominican or Monastery Church ,
also now Saxon, which has a stark, whitewashed interior hung with
colourful carpets similar to those in the Black Church at Brasov, and an
altar which resembles a wooden carpet-beater. The church was established
in 1298, but was progressively rebuilt between 1484 and 1680. It opens
on Sundays for morning service and in summer there's also an organ
recital the same day at 6pm.
The main Saxon church dominates the hill at the southern end of the
citadel. It is appropriately named the Church on the Hill ( Bergkirche
), and is reached by the impressive covered wooden Scholars' Stairs that
rise steeply at the southern end of Strada Scolii; the stairs,
consisting of 175 steps and 29 landings, date from 1642. Massively
buttressed, the Church on the Hill has a surprisingly roomy interior
that seems austere despite its array of frescoes. Founded in 1345 and
finished in 1525, it is currently drawing to the end of a long period of
restoration, and is rarely open. Some lovely stone tombs near the
entrance are a harbinger of the Saxon cemetery , a melancholy, weed-choked
mass of graves spilling over the hill top beside the ruined citadel
walls.
Of the citadel's original fourteen towers , named after the guilds
responsible for their upkeep, nine survive, the most impressive being
the hexagonal Shoemakers' Tower ( Turnul Cizmarilor ), the Tailors'
Tower ( Turnul Croitorilor ) and the Tinsmiths' Tower ( Turnul
Cositorarilor ); the last of these has a fine wooden gallery, best
viewed from the gateway of the Pfarrhaus , below the Church on the Hill.
A forbidding silhouette of battlements and needle spires looms over
SIGHISOARA (Schässburg to the Saxons and Segesvár to the Hungarians) as
the sun descends behind the hills of the Târnava Mare valley, and it
seems fitting that this was the birthplace of Vlad Tepes, "The Impaler"
- the man known to so many as Dracula . Visually archaic even by
Romanian standards, Sighisoara makes the perfect introduction to
Transylvania, especially as the eastbound Dacia, Traianus and Pannonia
express trains all stop here, making a convenient break in the long
journey between Budapest and Bucharest.
The Town
The old town or citadel dominates the newer quarters from a rocky massif
whose slopes support a jumble of ancient, leaning houses, their windows
overlooking the steps leading up from Piata Hermann Oberth to the main
gateway. Above rises the mighty Clock Tower , where each day one of
seven wooden figures emerges from the belfry on the stroke of midnight.
The tower was raised in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries when
Sighisoara became a free town controlled by craft guilds, each of which
had to finance the construction of a bastion and defend it during
wartime. It has subsequently been rebuilt after earthquakes and a fire
in 1676. Originally a Saxon town known as Castrum Sex (Fort Six),
Sighisoara grew rich on the proceeds of trade with Moldavia and
Wallachia, as the Clock Tower's museum attests (Mon 10am-3.30pm,
Tues-Fri 9am-6pm, Sat & Sun 9am-4pm). Most of the burghers were Magyar
or Saxon, and the Romanians - or Vlachs as they were then called -
became inferior citizens in Transylvanian towns following edicts passed
in 1540. These excluded Vlachs from public office and forbade them to
live in town houses with chimneys or with windows overlooking the
streets, and also prohibited them from wearing furs, embroidered dress,
shoes or boots. To the right of the Clock Tower stands the Dominican or
Monastery Church , also now Saxon, which has a stark, whitewashed
interior hung with colourful carpets similar to those in the Black
Church at Brasov, and an altar which resembles a wooden carpet-beater.
The church was established in 1298, but was progressively rebuilt
between 1484 and 1680. It opens on Sundays for morning service and in
summer there's also an organ recital the same day at 6pm.
The main Saxon church dominates the hill at the southern end of the
citadel. It is appropriately named the Church on the Hill ( Bergkirche
), and is reached by the impressive covered wooden Scholars' Stairs that
rise steeply at the southern end of Strada Scolii; the stairs,
consisting of 175 steps and 29 landings, date from 1642. Massively
buttressed, the Church on the Hill has a surprisingly roomy interior
that seems austere despite its array of frescoes. Founded in 1345 and
finished in 1525, it is currently drawing to the end of a long period of
restoration, and is rarely open. Some lovely stone tombs near the
entrance are a harbinger of the Saxon cemetery , a melancholy,
weed-choked mass of graves spilling over the hill top beside the ruined
citadel walls.
Of the citadel's original fourteen towers , named after the guilds
responsible for their upkeep, nine survive, the most impressive being
the hexagonal Shoemakers' Tower ( Turnul Cizmarilor ), the Tailors'
Tower ( Turnul Croitorilor ) and the Tinsmiths' Tower ( Turnul
Cositorarilor ); the last of these has a fine wooden gallery, best
viewed from the gateway of the Pfarrhaus , below the Church on the Hill.
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