The medieval town of Sighisoara in Transylvania
Sunday, 21 June 2015 - 02:54 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: European Union / Europäische UnionCategory/Kategorie: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time: 4 minutes
View from Villa Franka © Valimare
During the 12th century, German craftsmen and merchants known as the Transylvanian Saxons were invited to Transylvania by the King of Hungary to settle and defend the frontier of his realm. The chronicler Krauss lists a Saxon settlement in present-day Sighiṣoara by 1191. A document of 1280 records a town built on the site of a Roman fort as Castrum Sex or “six-sided camp”, referring to the fort’s shape of an irregular hexagon. Other names recorded include Schaäsburg (1282), Schespurg (1298) and Segusvar (1300). By 1337 Sighişoara had become a royal center for the kings, who awarded the settlement urban status in 1367 as the Civitas de Segusvar.
The city played an important strategic and commercial role at the edges of Central Europe for several centuries. Sighişoara became one of the most important cities of Transylvania, with artisans from throughout the Holy Roman Empire visiting the settlement. The German artisans and craftsmen dominated the urban economy, as well as building the fortifications protecting it. It is estimated that during the 16th and the 17th centuries Sighişoara had as many as 15 guilds and 20 handicraft branches. The Baroque sculptor Elias Nicolai lived in the city. The Wallachian prince Vlad Dracul (father of Vlad the Impaler (Dracula), who lived in exile in the town, let coins to be minted in the city (otherwise coinage was the monopoly of the Hungarian kings in the Kingdom of Hungary) and issued the first document listing the city’s Romanian name, Sighişoara. The Romanian name is first attested in 1435, and derives from the Hungarian Segesvár, where vár is “fort”.
Other interesting sights are:
- Sighişoara Citadel – a 12th Century Saxon edifice, is the historic center of the city. Still inhabited, the citadel is listed as a World Heritage Site.
- Weapon Museum – next to Vlad’s birthplace. Very small, but it contains an interesting selection of medieval weapons (swords, arrows, etc.).
- Covered Staircase – a very old stone staircase with a wooden roof along the whole span. This leads up to the Church on the Hill and the cemetery.
- Church on the Hill – contains many frescoes and a crypt. Built on the location of a Roman fort. Located on the side of the hill next to it is one of the Lutheran cemeteries in the city, which contains many tombstones of Germans.
- Bust of Vlad Tepes – Located around the corner from his birthplace, within sight of the Clock Tower.
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