Sibiu and around Transylvania

Saturday, May 24

We spent the day driving through the Transylvanian countryside and stopping in small towns along the way.  The area we covered was predominantly rural, though there were some industrialized small cities, too.  As we've been traveling in this part of Romania, we've remarked upon the fact that, in virtually every town, the houses have a very particular look.  They line the streets with flat sides abutting the sidewalk, shuttered windows, and adjacent wooden-gated driveways.  The only adornment is an occasional cross and choice of paint hue.

 Very obviously, there are no  CC&Rs or HOA monitoring here; every house is a different color, and the palette is extensive!  Nevertheless, the "flat" orientation to the street results in a vaguely institutional feel until, that is, we really opened our eyes, when we realized that the homes were actually showing their "backs" to the street.  Behind the blocky, plain walls and fences, there were extended buildings, completely separate buildings, barns, substantial family vegetable garden plots, and who knew what else?!? 

Sharing the roads with us and the usual array of truck traffic and road crews mending ubiquitous potholes were many horse-drawn carts, some carrying loads of hay, tree limbs, or other rural impedimenta, others bearing a farmer and his kids, and our favorite, one whose sole passenger was a farmer on his cell phone!  Old meets new...

We stopped first to see the fortified church in the town of Biertan.  This Gothic church, for centuries the seat of Lutheran bishops, is being beautifully restored.  The ribbed vaulting, beautiful multi-paneled altarpiece, and the marquetry of the choir seats were standouts, not to mention the sacristy door, with its nineteen locks! 

  The church is surrounded by a double-ring of walls, connected by a covered wooden staircase (currently undergoing restoration).

We drove a couple of kilometers to the tiny village of Copsa Mare, whose fortified church was padlocked as well, and inaccessible to us.  So, it was on to Sighisoara, birthplace of Vlad Tepes (Dracula), and notable for its citadel/old town, high on a hill.  Nine of the citadel's original fourteen towers remain, each named for the craft guild responsible for its building, defense, and maintenance.  The exception to that protocol is the massive clock tower, which belonged to the town council. 

 It towers above the citadel and the lower town, as well, and its carved figures emerge to oversee the town when midnight strikes

By mid afternoon, we were back at home base in Sibiu for a walk around its old town and pretty squares.  Our wonderful apartment here is just inside the old town, on a street adjacent to the walls and several of the craft guilds' defensive towers.

We enjoyed a delicious dinner of Romanian traditional food at a restaurant between our apartment and the main square, then headed out to the square for some evening photos.  While there, we heard symphonic music coming from the large ("non-agressive" Baroque) Catholic church we'd visited earlier today.  We were lucky enough to end the day with a Mozart flute concerto in that lovely setting.