Sights in Romania
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Black Church
Braşov's main landmark, just south of the Piaţa Sfatului (Council Square), is the Black Church, the largest Gothic church between Vienna and Istanbul and still used by German Lutherans today. Built between 1383 and 1480 (delayed by an Ottoman razing), its name comes from its appearance after a fire in 1689.
The original statues on the exterior of the apse are now inside (look back after you enter) and some 120 fabulous Turkish rugs hang from the balconies (gifts from merchants who returned from shopping sprees in the southern Ottoman lands). Worshippers drop coins through the wooden grates in the floor and hope for the best.
The church's 4000-pipe organ, built by…
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Clock Tower
Entering the citadel, you pass under the massive Clock Tower, which dates from 1280 and once housed the town council. Formerly the main entrance to the fortified city, the tower is 64m tall, with sturdy base walls measuring an impenetrable 2.35m. Inside, the 1648 clock is a pageant of slowly revolving 80cm-high figurines, carved from linden wood, each representing a character from the Greek-Roman pantheon: Peace bears an olive branch, Justice has a set of scales and Law wields a sword.
The executioner is also present and the drum-player strikes the hour. Above stand seven figures, each representing a day of the week.
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Peleş Castle
Full of pomp and brimming with confidence of a new Romanian monarchy, the magnificent century-old Peleş Castle, a 20-minute walk up from the centre, is really a palace. Fairy-tale turrets rise above acres of green meadows and grand reception halls fashioned in Moorish, Florentine and French styles, with heavy wood-carved ceilings and gilded pieces overwhelm our wee mortal minds. Even if you're bent on chasing 'Dracula', it's hard not to get a thrill visiting this castle.
The first European castle to have central heating, electricity and vacuuming(!), Peleş was intended to be the summer residence of Romania's longest-serving monarch, King Carol I (the hand-to-hip statue…
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Mount Tâmpa
Towering above town from the east is Mount Tâmpa, where Braşov's original defensive fortress was built. Vlad Ţepeş attacked it in 1458, finally dismantling it two years later and - out of habit - impaling some 40 merchants atop the peak. These days it's an easy, and irresistible, trip up. Many visitors go via the Tâmpa cable car offering stunning views from the top of Mt Tâmpa and a communist-era dining room. There's access to hiking trails up here.
Walk south to reach the 'Hollywood'-style Braşov sign, with a viewing platform. You can also hike to the top in an hour following zigzag trails from the cable-car station (red triangles) or from the northeastern edge of…
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Citadel
Most of Sighişoara's sights are clustered in the compact old town - the delightful medieval Citadel - perched on a hillock and fortified with a 14th-century wall, to which 14 towers and five artillery bastions were later added. Today the citadel, which is on the Unesco World Heritage list, retains just nine of its original towers (named for the guilds in charge of their upkeep) and two of its bastions.
You'll have more than a couple of chances to get Dracula t-shirts and locally made brandy these days.
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Alexandru Borza Botanic Gardens
West through the student ghetto campus housing, head past fast-food joints up Str Bogdan P Haşdeu to Str Pasteur to reach the fragrant 1930 Alexandru Borza Botanic Gardens, which covers 15 hectares, with shaded green lawns, a super Japanese garden and rose garden with some 600 different varieties, and an observation tower.
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Str Storii
Between Piaţa Sfatului and the Mt Tâmpa cable car is Str Storii, which is 1.32m by 83m - one of Europe's narrowest 'streets'. The cobbled pedestrian-only alley has been scrubbed up, with nice views of the 'Braşov' sign on the mountain, and connects Str Porta Schei and Str Cerbului.
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Church on the Hill
The covered stairway leads to the 1345 Gothic Church on the Hill, a 429m Lutheran church and the town's highest point. Facing its entry - behind the church when approaching from the steps - is an atmospheric, overgrown German cemetery.
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Covered Stairway
From the Piaţa Cetăţii, turn left up Str Şcolii to the 172 steps of the Covered Stairway, which has tunnelled its way up the hill since 1642.
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Culture Palace
By far Târgu Mureş' top attraction dominates the square's southwestern corner, the Culture Palace, the city's beloved landmark. Built in 1911-13, the secessionist-style building is unlike anything you'll find around Transylvania. Inside its glittering, tiled, steepled roofs are ornate hallways, colourful walls, giant mirrors imported from Venice, and an often-used concert hall (with a dramatic 4463-pipe organ). Not to mention several worthwhile museums (all included in the entry price).
The best is the Hall of Mirrors (Sala Oglinzi), with 12 stained-glass windows lining a 45m hallway - a tape in various languages explains the Székely fairy tales each portrays. The Art…
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History Museum
Inside the tower is the great little History Museum, with small rooms that wind up to the 7th-floor look-out above the clock. On the first floor, don't miss the small exhibit on local hero Hermann Oberth; there are some English translations (as well as the sketch of Oberth's 'space suit'). A couple of floors up are 18th-century gingerbread wood blocks, a local tradition that dates from 1376.
Above you can see the clock's famed figures, as well as the clanking innards behind. It's not made clear, but you can visit the History Museum, the medieval arms collection, and the Torture Room Museum for a combined ticket price (about the same price as the student discounts for all…
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Bran Castle
Despite popular myth, Bran castle has no links with Vlad Tepes, the medieval prince most often associated with everyone's favourite vampire. And, with its fairytale turrets and whitewashed walls, the castle is not exactly menacing. It was actually built by Saxons in 1382 to defend the Bran pass against Turks.
Many rooms have been subjected to a modern redecoration and look as if they are inhabited by rich eccentrics. The furniture is indeed a highlight of a visit here. The fountain in the courtyard conceals a labyrinth of secret underground passages. The entry fee includes admission to an on-site ethnographic museum and the nearby Vama Bran Museum.
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Pharmaceutical Museum
Here's why we travel - for superb, fully rewarding, ever-surprising quirks like this, the small three-room Pharmaceutical Museum, housed in Cluj's first - and Romania's fourth - apothecary (1573), as a bronze-plate map painstakingly attests. Led by a hilarious pharmacist in a white lab coat, who points like a game-show model towards (seemingly ho-hum) glass cases of ground mummy dust, medieval alchemist symbols and painted 18th-century aphrodisiac bottles.
He speaks some English. If you utter a 'wow' you may get a deadpanned 'For you… interesting… for me… it is normal.'
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St Michael's Church
The vast 14th-century St Michael's Church dominates Piaţa Unirii. The neo-Gothic tower (1859) topping the Gothic hall church creates a great landmark and the church (built in four stages) is considered to be one of the finest examples of Gothic architecture in Romania. The three naves and vestry were the last to be completed at the end of the 16th century.
The choir vaults, built in the 14th century, were rebuilt in the 18th century, following a fire. Daily services are in Hungarian and Romanian, and evening organ concerts are often held.
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National Village Museum
On the shores of Herăstră Lake, the National Village Museum is a terrific open-air collection of several dozen homesteads, churches, mills and windmills relocated from rural Romania. At times in July and August artisans in traditional garb show off various rural trades. Built in 1936 by Royal Decree, it is one of Europe's oldest open-air museums and a must for children. Get here from the centre by taking bus 131 or 331 from B-dul General Magheru or Piaţa Romană to the 'Muzuel Satului' stop.
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Torture Room Museum
Under the clock tower on the right (if heading out of the old town) is the small, dark Torture Room Museum, which shows how fingers were smashed and prisoners burned with coals. The 'Spanish boot' was a happy little foot-crushing device. If it's closed, ask at the medieval arms collection for entry.
It's not made clear, but you can visit the History Museum, the medieval arms collection, and the Torture Room Museum for a combined ticket price (about the same price as the student discounts for all three).
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Piaţa Sfatului
This wide square is the heart of medieval Braşov. In the centre stands the 1420 council house (Casa Sfatului), topped by a Trumpeter's Tower, in which town councillors, known as centurions, would meet. Some locals swear the joint's haunted; we were warned one worker there quit after 'hearing sounds'. Apparently the tower staged countless tortures, and the square outside supposedly staged the last witch burning in Europe. The Braşov Historical Museum is located here.
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First Romanian School Museum
Beside St Nicholas' Cathedral is the two-room 1495 First Romanian School Museum, which packs a staggering far-reaching selection of old books and pieces, including the first Russian Bible (1581), King Ferdinand's coronation flag from 1922 (found in 2006), and 15th-century schoolbooks that warned 'he who will steal this book will be CURSED…his blood shall melt on his body…his left eye shall dry out!' Resist the temptation then. No English; guides are available.
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St Nicholas' Cathedral
The black-spired Orthodox Church of St Nicholas' Cathedral was first built in wood in 1392 and replaced by a Gothic stone church in 1495 by the Wallachian prince Neagoe Basarab (r 1512-21), later embellished in Byzantine style. In 1739 the church was enlarged and its interior heavily redecorated. Inside are murals of Romania's last king and queen, covered by plaster to protect them from communist leaders and uncovered in 2004.
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Collection of Medieval Arms
The small Collection of Medieval Arms has four rooms devoted to medieval helmets, shields, cross-bows, maces (aka 'whips for fight') and cannonballs. Somehow an illustration of Napoleon made the cut too. It's not made clear, but you can visit the History Museum, the medieval arms collection, and the Torture Room Museum for a combined ticket price (about the same price as the student discounts for all three).
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Bucegi
The easiest way up into the Bucegi from Sinaia is up two cable-car rides, one from the centre to the Cota 1400 station, then another up to Cota 2000 station. In the centre, the 30-person cable-car station leaves half-hourly with two station points marked by elevation. Lines are more likely in winter than summer. Buses just below the station also go up to Cota 1400 when full; there are also taxis.
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Casa Dracula
Continuing west towards Piaţa Cetăţii, you come to the site in which Vlad Ţepeş (Dracula) was born in 1431 and reputedly lived until the age of four. The pretty, all-renovated Casa Dracula is now a restaurant. Bubble-burster: the building is indeed centuries old, but has been completely rebuilt since Vlad's days.
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Jewish Quarter
Little remains of the old Jewish quarter of Văcăreşti, northeast of Piaţa Unirii in Bucharest's historic heart; nearly all of what wasn't destroyed during the Iron Guard's fascist pogrom in 1941 was levelled by Ceauşescu in the mid-1980s.
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Choral Temple
The Choral Temple, built in 1857, is the city's main working synagogue and is visually stunning inside. You'll need your passport to enter. A memorial to the victims of the Holocaust (including 400,000 Romanian Jews), erected in 1991, fronts the temple.
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White Tower
On the hillside above the wall surrounding Old Braşov are two towers - the Black Tower (Turnul Neagru) and White Tower; both are rather white actually - offering nice views, particularly when the setting sun casts a golden hue on Braşov.
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