The Beauty Of The Citadel

in #hive-1637722 years ago

Today I'd like to show you what the citadel of Sighișoara has to offer, bedsides the medieval festival. It has plenty of historic monuments to show you, among which many are several centuries old.

The Beauty Of The Citadel.jpg

There are several entry points to the citadel, depending on what direction one is coming from. None of them is an easy walk as you have to climb a hill.

20220731_103247a.jpg

This is the entrance we used and even though the road here has some turns, it's still not so steep.

IMG_20200613_164345a.jpg

This is a photo I took two years ago. This was a different road up to the citadel, a much more steeper. I'm not sure how many entrances are there, but I suppose some of the bastions, if not all have entrance and exit points.

This year we entered through the Clock Tower, which is hardly visible on the first photo, you can only spot the top of it, if you pay attention.

20220731_130432a.jpg

But here is another view, from inside, where you can see why it called Clock Tower.

In every fortification system there is one fortress that dominates the others: the master-tower. The Clock Tower of Sighișoara (Romanian: Turnul cu Ceas, German: Stundturm) is the main entry point to the citadel, opposite guarded by Tailors' Tower. With its 64 meters of height, the tower is visible from almost every corner of the city from Mures County, its purpose was to defend the main gate of the citadel and also served as the town hall until 1556. Now It's considered one of the most expressive clock tower in the whole Transylvania. source

20220731_103617a.jpg

The clock tower
built in the 13th - 14th century.
Until 1556, it housed the city council.
Destroyed by the fire in 1676, it was rebuilt in 1677.
In 1891 the roof was decorated with glazed tiles.
Since 1898, it serves as the premises of the city museum.
The clock and figurines representing the days of the week dates back t 1648. [translation of the marble plaque]

20220731_130522(0)a.jpg

I tried to take a decent photo of the tower, but zooming in is not always successful, plus the light wasn't perfect either, but you can see the clock and the figurines. You can read more about the tower here.

20220731_103747a.jpg

20220731_103913a.jpg

The stunning view of the city, from the citadel.

20220731_104503a.jpg

Most, if not all the houses are from another century, therefore look like this one. Old doors, old windows and quite many times in need of a good restoration.

20220731_104728a.jpg

20220731_104734a.jpg

20220731_105844(0)a.jpg

This is the house that is hosting the German Democratic Forum of Sighișoara. The shape of the doors and windows take me back to another era and remind me of a church, although I don't think it has ever been a church. However, back in those days the church had a lot more power than these days, schools were managed by the church, so it must have been a building connected to the church in my opinion.

20220731_110105a.jpg

20220731_110136a.jpg

A 3 star Bed and Breakfast, for those who'd like to experience what it is like to live in such a building for a few days. I'm sure there were plenty of tourists spending the nights during the festival, here.

20220731_110251a.jpg

Another one, just as cute as the other, if you like the noise of the festival.

20220731_110643a.jpg

20220731_110709a.jpg

Hotel Sighișoara, if you prefer something modern or closer to our days. I haven't been inside, but here's the photo gallery from booking.com, to what it looks like inside. It's a mix of old feeling brought to new standards. It's definitely a pleasure to stay in such a hotel.

20220731_110653(0)a.jpg

The base of the Romanian German cultural center, also in a nice old building inside the citadel, with a gift shop at the ground level.

20220731_124246a.jpg

Another interesting tourist attraction you should visit, once you're there is the Roman Catholic church.

20220731_124326a.jpg

20220731_124540a.jpg

According tho this source, the construction of the church started in 1895 and was inaugurated one year later.

In 1983, as a result of a short circuit, the ceiling burned down and the interior was badly damaged, which was reconstructed with painstaking work. source

20220731_124426a.jpg

Catholic churches are open all day, entrance is free, but you can only visit the praying area, the rest is closed.

20220731_124430a.jpg

20220731_124500a.jpg

20220731_124437a.jpg

I must admit, compared to other catholic churches I've seen so far, this one is the simplest of all. No fresco on the wall, no saints.

20220731_124444a.jpg

Those wooden decorations however looked great. I suppose there are decorated with scenes from the bible, below with verses from the bible.

20220731_124715a.jpg

Left to the church there's the statue of Sándor Petőfi, the Hungarian poet and liberal revolutionary. He had a very short life and presumably died at the age of 26, in the battle of Sighișoara.

20220731_124608a.jpg

This is the Shoemaker's Tower.

The Shoemakers' Tower is documented for the first time in 1594. In its current form, it is one of the recent towers, betraying some influences of Baroque architecture. It was rebuilt in 1650. Of relatively small vertical dimensions, the tower follows a hexagonal shape with unequal sides. The roof has the shape of a long tile helmet, from the mass of which a small observation tower detaches to the south, towards the interior of the fortress.

The fire of 1676 completely destroyed it, and it was rebuilt from the ground up and acquired its current appearance with baroque influences in 1681. Two important inscriptions were discovered inside it, kept today in the collection of the Museum of History. In the first epigraphic document appears the first coat of arms of the city and above it is written the motto "Nomen Domini Turiis Fortissima" ("The name of the Lord the strongest tower"), and on the second is written "Under the reign of the illustrious and pre-illuminated prince G. Rakocyi II, by the mercy of God, prince of Transylvania and comite of the Székelys" source

The flag you see there it's most likely a replica of the shoemaker's flag from those days.

Looking back to what I saw here, there's so much history compressed in this tiny place. Each building has its own history but because we're talking about more than 700 years of history, you can imagine how many stories are there to tell. It was really like a walk back to medieval times. If you're in the neighborhood, this place is a must.


presearch

Sort:  

Congratulations, your post has been added to Pinmapple! 🎉🥳🍍

Did you know you have your own profile map?
And every post has their own map too!

Want to have your post on the map too?

  • Go to Pinmapple
  • Click the get code button
  • Click on the map where your post should be (zoom in if needed)
  • Copy and paste the generated code in your post (Hive only)
  • Congrats, your post is now on the map!

Citadel is really a beautiful place

Really beautiful!

Thank you.

It is indeed, worth visiting.

Wow! These are very beautiful classical sceneries! Really nice.

My eyes have been fed to satisfaction.

Glad to hear that. Thanks for stopping by and have a nice evening

I must say you do well in capturing pictures, such a beautiful place worth visiting. So much history in there. Thanks for sharing

Thank you! I'm trying to do my best.

I’ve never seen a staircase like that metal staircase before. And the way they left that small opening for it to pass into the top floor, great design!

Those staircases are common here, but only where there's money. It's a nice solution where there's not much space. It's not very comfortable to run up and down those stairs several times a day, but when there's no other choice ...

It is indeed beautiful and I hope to visit one day

Thank you and fingers crossed.

Hiya, @LivingUKTaiwan here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Honorable Mentions in Daily Travel Digest #1649.

Your post has been manually curated by the @pinmapple team. If you like what we're doing, please drop by to check out all the rest of today's great posts and consider supporting other authors like yourself and us so we can keep the project going!

Become part of our travel community:

Thank you!

Here you look at some photos where there are people, but few attributes of modernity - you turn on your imagination, imagining people in medieval clothes, and the photos begin to play with new and interesting colors :)

At some photos you can see people in medieval clothes. Imagine when you are the only one with 21th century clothes 😄