Sighișoara & Saxon Villages

Sighișoara is the smallest of Transylvania's three walled towns and the one that has changed least. The citadel sits on a hill above the modern town, still enclosed, still lived in, and small enough to walk in an hour.

The citadel

The historic centre is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list, listed in 1999. It was founded in the twelfth century by the same German settlers who built Sibiu and Brașov, and it grew as a craftsmen's and merchants' town — which is why the towers around the walls are named after the guilds that were responsible for defending them.

Inside the walls: coloured houses on cobbled lanes, the clock tower on the main square, and a covered wooden stair climbing to the church on the hill above. The house on the square is traditionally identified as the birthplace of Vlad III, the prince whose name the Dracula story borrowed.

The villages around it

This is also the best base for the fortified Saxon villages, which are the reason to give the area more than a night. Two of the seven UNESCO-listed villages — Saschiz and Viscri — are within easy reach, and the unlisted ones between them are often empty.

How to do it

Stay inside the citadel rather than below it. The town empties in the late afternoon when the coaches leave, and the evening is the part worth being there for.