Sighisoara, a place that gets better with time

Sighisoara Guided Tour

Some people say that Sighisoara has a different energy each time they visit it, it is like wine, another year goes by and it becomes even better, more beautiful. An important role is also played by the people who pass through it, once hundreds of foreign tourists crowded the citadel and dozens of languages echoed through the streets.

Next we’re going to walk through the 9 most beautiful sights you can visit in one day in Sighisoara, either by yourself, or through our special Sighisoara Guided Tour.

1. Fortress Square

We start our tour from the Citadel Square, the place where in the past trials were held and trade was done, today it is the central point where tourists gather to admire a street show, to take a TukTuk or to cool off with a lemonade on hot summers.

2. Clock Tower

We’ll take the narrow lane and head to the Clock Tower, Sighisoara’s most iconic tourist attraction. It is 64 m high, the lower part of the tower dates back to the 14th century and the upper levels were added later.

The roof, destroyed by the city fire of 1676, was rebuilt by Austrian craftsmen the following year, its bulbous shape being the oldest preserved testimony to the penetration of Austrian Baroque in Transylvania.

3. Blacksmiths’ Tower

Continuing on our way, we turn slightly to the left and at a viewpoint we find the Blacksmiths’ Tower, built in 1631 on the site of the old Barbers’ Tower. It burned down in the fire of 1676, then was repaired. It can be visited.

4. St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Cathedral

One of the famous old churches of the medieval city, this building is characterized by an eclectic style, with neo-Gothic and neo-Romanesque architectural elements predominating. The church has a 30 m long nave with a semicircular apse, a transept and a very high bell tower.

The construction of the church was started in 1895 under the parish priest Josef Weiss and was built on the site of an old church from the Middle Ages, which belonged to the Dominican sisters before the Reformation and to the Franciscan friars after the Reformation in 1723. It was consecrated on 4 October 1896.

5. Tailors’ Tower

The Tailors’ Tower was built in the 15th century for storage purposes, but in case of danger the two gangways could be closed with metal gates. In 1676, during a fire, gunpowder stored here exploded, destroying the upper part of the tower.

6. Furries Tower

The Furries Tower was destroyed by fire in 1676 and was rebuilt later. It can be visited, and today a company selling bags made of natural leather operates here.

7. The Covered Staircase or Scholar’s Staircase

The covered staircase was built in 1642 on the initiative of the mayor Johann Both to make it easier for pupils to get to the school next to the church on the hill during harsh winters or rain.

Originally, the wooden, roofed Schoolboys’ Staircase had 300 steps. After a modification in 1849, it retained 175 steps, interrupted by several wide platforms.

This superb, tunnel-like staircase, through whose wooden slats the sun’s rays penetrate, leads to the top of the hill, where there is an old Gothic church and an evangelical school.

One of the legends of the staircase says that a boy must kiss a girl he loves on each step of the staircase and say her name without mistake. If he succeeds it means he is the right boy for the girl.

8. School on the hill

In 1619 the mayor Martin Eisenburger ordered the construction of a new building next to the existing one, this new building bearing the inscription Schola Seminarium Reipublicae-1619. The new building is based on a defensive tower from an earlier fortification.

In 1620 the rector Simon Hartmann organized the middle classes on the model of the three most important schools in Transylvania at that time (Brasov, Sibiu and Bistrita), and graduates were entitled to attend any university.

Four levels were introduced: quatra, tretia, secunda and prima. Students in the first class also had a so-called coetus (a self-governing body). There were poetics and rhetoric groups, and the alumni had a convict.

9. Church on the hill

The Church on the Hill in Sighisoara is an evangelical church that was built in several stages between 1345-1525. Dedicated to St. Nicholas, it stands at the top of the so-called “School Hill” (in German Schulberg).

Considered the city’s most valuable architectural monument, it is the fourth largest Gothic church in Transylvania and contains a chapel of the same name.

If you want to visit all these places we are waiting for you at the Sighisoara Guided Tour.