Sighișoara and the Saxon fortified churches: the back story

About Sighișoara and the Saxon fortified churches: the back story

By the ULTIMATE Bucharest Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

In the 12th and 13th centuries, the kings of Hungary invited German settlers, known as the Transylvanian Saxons, to farm and defend southern Transylvania. They built Sighișoara, one of the best-preserved inhabited citadels in Europe, and, in their villages, churches surrounded by walls and towers where the whole community could shelter.

The Saxons

For more than eight centuries, the Saxons gave southern Transylvania its towns, its Lutheran churches and its villages of colourful houses facing the street. Most emigrated to Germany in the late 20th century, but their villages and churches remain.

Sighișoara

The historic centre of Sighișoara, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is a hilltop citadel of cobbled lanes, guild towers and coloured houses, still lived in. The Clock Tower, with its moving figures, holds the history museum; a covered wooden stairway of 1642 climbs to the Church on the Hill; and a house on the citadel square is said to be the birthplace of Vlad the Impaler.

In Biertan, quarrelling couples were locked in a tiny room with one bed and one plate.

The fortified churches

Facing raids from the 15th century onwards, Saxon villages turned their churches into fortresses, with walls, towers and storerooms for grain and bacon. Around 150 survive, and seven villages with fortified churches are inscribed by UNESCO.

Biertan and Viscri

Biertan’s church, on a hill ringed by three walls, was the seat of the Lutheran bishops for three centuries, and its sacristy door has a famous lock. Viscri, a white fortified church in a village of pastel houses, is one of the most loved places in Transylvania.

Our advice: stay at least one night in Sighișoara, inside the citadel if you can, and visit it early or late, when the day-trippers have gone. Rent a car to explore the fortified-church villages; Biertan and Viscri are each under an hour from Sighișoara.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Sighișoara and the Saxon fortified churches: the back story before you go.