The Council Tower
The tower in the gap between the Great Square and the Little Square. It has been a granary, a fire lookout and a prison, and it is now a viewpoint.
- How long to allow
- Twenty minutes
The background
The Council Tower stands in the passage joining Sibiu’s two main squares, and walking under it is how most people move between them without noticing they have passed through a piece of the medieval fortifications.
Its origins are 12th century, but what you are looking at has been rebuilt more than once and its silhouette has changed with each rebuild. It has served as a grain store, as a fire watchpoint over the roofs, and at times as a prison — a working municipal building rather than a monument, which is why it kept being altered.
It can be climbed, and the reward is the view down onto the Great Square on one side and the Little Square on the other, which is the clearest way to understand how the upper town is put together.
Prefer to have the route organised for you?
Guided private trips and custom itineraries are arranged externally, with a local driver-guide.
View private toursOther places near Sibiu
ASTRA Museum of Traditional Folk Civilisation
Ninety-six hectares of forest with several hundred real buildings moved into it — houses, watermills, workshops, whole farmsteads. Allow half a day and wear proper shoes.
Biertan Fortified Church
Three rings of wall around a church on a hill, a sacristy door with a nineteen-bolt lock, and a room where couples were sent instead of…
The Transfăgărășan
The road over the Făgăraș mountains. Open only in the warm months, closed by snow for the rest of the year — check the current season…
Brukenthal National Museum
A genuine European picture gallery on the main square, opened to the public in 1817 — the oldest museum in Romania, and one of the first…
Lutheran Cathedral of Saint Mary
The Gothic church on Huet Square, whose steeple is the tallest in Transylvania and the thing you navigate the old town by.
The Bridge of Lies
A small iron footbridge in the Little Square, cast in 1859. The name is a pun that outlived the joke, and the real story is better…