Top 10 Places to See in Romania
A land of diversity, ruggedly beautiful, Romania has a lot to offer to its visitors, from traditional villages, where customs are being kept for thousands of years, to medieval castles and impressive landscapes. Cruise through the channels of the Danube Delta in the south or visit the villages in the northern part of the country, you'll be amazed.
TRANSYLVANIA
Transylvania is "the land beyond the forests". The name of this magic Romanian land flanked as a fortress by the Carpathian Mountains, originates from Latin. Surrounded by mysteries and legends, riddled with stronghold churches, peasant citadels and castles, blessed with breathtaking landscapes, Transylvania is the most attractive tourist Romanian region, with Brasov, Sighisoara and Sibiu beeing the most beautiful cities.
Attractions in Transylvania: Peles Castle, Bran Castle, Corvin Castle, Rasnov Fortress, Rupea Citadel.
PELES CASTLE
Located in Sinaia, at the bottom of Bucegi Mountains, the Peles Castle is one of the most beautiful castles in Europe. The castle was built between the years 1875-1883 by the first Romanian King, Carol I, of the Hohenzollern family. It was the residence of the Romanian royal family between the years 1883 - 1947. Impressive art object from the early 14th – 17th centuries can be admired in the 160 rooms of the castle.
BRAN CASTLE
Bran Castle was documentary attested in 1377, built between Bucegi and Piatra Craiului Mountains, on a rock that guides the road to Walachia. CNN located the Bran Castle among the most beautiful ten castles in the world. The ruler Vlad Tepes, associated with Dracula by Bram Stocker, passed on to Bran, which attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists in this area full of myths and legends.
Saxon Villages and Fortified Churches:
Unesco World Heritage included 7 fortified churches from Transylvania in it’s list: Viscri, Biertan, Viilor Valey, Saschiz, Calnic, Darjiu or Prejmer. All of them are located in superb and full of charm Saxon Villages.
MEDIEVAL Towns: Sibiu, Brasov, Sighisoara
Town of BRASOV
BLACK CHURCH IN BRASOV
The Black Church is the most powerful symbol of Brasov, bearing its name after a great fire in 1689. Located in the historical centre, built during 1383-1477, this massive construction is the largest Gothic style church located to the Eastern part of Vienna. The superlatives do not stop here: the largest organ, the largest bell (more than 6 tones weight) and the most valuable collection of oriental carpets, exceptional value parts from the 7th – 8th centuries.
BRASOV COUNCIL SQUARE
It is a typical European medieval town square, Brasov’s central point for the locals meeting and the place where each December is organized a superb Christmas Market. The Council Square was certified as a fair in 1520.
POIANA BRASOV
It is most famous and exclusive mountain resort in Romania, with good facilities for winter sports. Poiana Brasov is located at 1020 meters altitude, 12 kilometers away from Brasov, at the end of a superb road.
Town of SIBIU
BRIDGE OF LIES - SIBIU
This famous metal bridge from Sibiu replaced in 1859, a wodden bridge, two centuries old. The wooden strap was called the Bridge of Lies, and the reputation passed over to this iron bridge. Sibiu locals know from their parents that the bridge is squeaking and shuddering at every lie told. Here the merchants, who enraged the customers at the market nearby, from the Small Square, were punished.
HISTORICAL CENTER OF SIBIU
The Large Square is the place where Sibiu’s heart has been beating since the 14th century. In this area bordered by superb buildings such as the Romano-Catholic Church and the headquarters of the city council, or Brukenthal Palace Museum, a former headquarters of Transylvania’s governors under the Habsburgs are now taking place the great events of the year: New Year's Eve celebration, the Christmas Market, concerts and prestigious cultural events.
Former market of the city, the Small Square is dominated by the Council Tower, the symbol of Sibiu, seven centuries old. Step up in this tower and you will have a magnificent view over the city, over the Transylvanian plain and, in the distance, over the "Transylvanian Alps” - Fagaras Mountains. The Lutheran Church is nearby.
ASTRA MUSEUM
If you want to have a picture over the Transylvania inhabitants’ life a few centuries ago, you must visit ASTRA Museum. Organized in open air, on 96 ha, placed in the Dumbrava reservation, ASTRA Museum exhibits over 300 old peasant households. ASTRA Museum can also be reached by a pulled horse’s carriage.
Town of SIGHISOARA
THE CITADEL - UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE
Sighisoara was established by the German emigrants who had arrived here from the North Renania in the second half of the 12th century. The citadel was inhabited without interruption until today. The citadel had 14 towers, one for each brotherhood. Nine of them remained until today. Each year, at the end of July, in the old citadel a famous medieval festival takes place.
CLOCK TOWER
The Gate Tower, known as the Clock Tower, is the symbol of Sighisoara city and a symbol of Transylvania. It has a 64 meters height, being built in the 14th century. It is called the Clock Tower because of the horologe with linden wood figures– the Pagan Gods sculpted represent the days of the week - dating from the 17th century.
CITADEL SQUARE
Today, an excellent place of great expansion and dining in a baroque-medieval atmosphere, the Citadel Square was once the place where the criminals were judged and executed. In the buildings around the market were dwelling the leaders of the city, some of their houses dating from the 15th century remaining until today. From the square, as look towards the Clock Tower, you will see the house of Vlad Dracul.
Dating from the 14th century, this is the oldest building of the city. During 1431 – 1435, here lived Vlad Dracul, Transylvania’s military governor. And it is very likely that in this house was born, in 1431, Vlad Dracul’s son - Vlad the Impeller, identified by the admirers of Bram Stocker’s novel, as Dracula. It is an overlap between the name of his father - "Dracul (the Devil)" – coming from the Dragon's order which had been conferred upon his father's former ruler Vlad and the cruelty of the Walachia’s emperor which really scared the Turks and the Saxons altogether, with his impalements punishments.
AMAZING roads: Transfagarasan and Transalpina
TRANSFAGARASAN HIGHWAY
This road is without doubt one of the most amazing roads in the world. The producers of United Kingdom famous TOP GEAR show tested their cars on Transfagarasan. In Romania, only Transalpina, found on the western side, is aiming at rivaling the Transfagarasan. Although Transalpina goes higher, the Transfagarasan is more spectacular because of the rocky mountains it crosses - Fagaras Mountains, known as the “Transylvanian Alps”, where the highest peak of Romania can be found, 2544 m.
TRANSALPINA HIGHWAY
Crossing this road on the mountains’ peak, at 2145m altitude, is certainly an unforgettable experience. Transalpina is the highest road from the Carpathians. The road is open from the middle of April until October, depending on the snow falls. This road was used two thousand years ago, since the Dacians and Romans. The road was built by the Germans during the First World War, rebuilt during the inter-war period, when it was called “The King’s Road”, and recently upgraded.
MOLDAVIA – BUCOVINA
This magical region of Romania is situated in the north-east part and it is full with monasteries and churches. Painted Monasteries are the most known attraction from this region. 8 of them are registered in UNESCO World Heritage: Arbore, Humor, Moldovita, Patrausi, Probota, Voronet , "Saint George" from Suceava and Sucevita. The architecture belongs to the western, gothic inspiration and the painting is of Byzantine inspiration.
The large number of monasteries and the reputation of the father confessors brought its fame to the Balkans and to the Orthodox world, being considered, just as Athos Mountain, a real "Virgin Mary’s Garden.”
VORONET MONASTERY – UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE
Often called "The Sistine Chapel of the East", Voronet Monastery will astound you with the "Judgment Day” scene painted on the entire west side wall of the monastery’s church "The Voronet Blue" keeps intriguing researchers. They have not managed to find out the chemical composition of the used color, a color that keeps its freshness despite of the bad weather and of the five centuries that passed ever since.
HUMOR MONASTERY – CHRISTIANS TAKE REVENGE FOR CONSTANTINOPOL - UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE
Humor Monastery was raised in 1530, near the ancient ruins of an old monastery destroyed by the Tatars. Humor Monastery church preserved the fresco from the southern wall. The image of the first siege of Constantinople from 626 and Christians victory draws attention.
SUCEVITA MONASTERY - UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE
At the end of a superb road that passes through Marginea village, famous for the special ceramics, Sucevita Monastery shows as a proud citadel, with walls, towers and strong contra-fort, guarded by high hills.
MOLDOVITA MONASTERY - UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE
Moldovita Monastery is much alike Humor monastery. It was rebuilt under Petru Rares in 1532 as a strong fortifications monastery, near the old, ruined monastery, dating from 1402. In Moldovita, the Crucifying scene is the most valuable paint inside the church’s monastery.
PROBOTA MONASTERY - UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE
Probota Monastery is renowned for the gracious lines of the exterior painting. The monastery was built by vaivode Petru Rares in 1530, under whose rule the most churches in Bucovina were painted on the outside. Petru Rares is buried here.
DANUBE DELTA – UNESCO NATURAL SITE
Danube Delta is the only natural site in Romania included in the UNESCO World Heritage. Today a strictly protected Biosphere Reserve, the largest Delta in Europe is the paradise for millions of birds, of wild horses, the paradise of nature lovers and of those who are fond of bird-watching. In spring, when everything revives, two hundred species of migratory birds come back here from Africa or from the Mediterranean, like in a holiday. 25,000 Romanians and Lippovans live in the few isolated villages, flecked across the three Delta Arms.
MARAMURES
In Maramures, you will be into a journey back in time. The vales of Iza, Mara, Casau and Botiza are ripe with dreamlike landscapes of villages largely unscathed by the modern age, inhabited by warm and friendly people who have not foresworn the old customs. The impressive wooden gates and wodden churches are specific to Maramures. Eight of them are registered in UNESCO World Heritage. Hundreds of years old, placed in the middle of some epic cemeteries, the churches from Surdesti, Plopis, Rogoz, Ieud, Poienile Izei, Barsana, Budesti and Desesti delight us today by the obedience and beauty of the naive and post-Byzantine painting, by the virtuosity and daring of the Master craftsman who constructed them.
In Maramures, at Sapanta, locates the most original cemetery in the world, “Merry Cemetery” and visiting it will help you have a serenely look over death. Each person buried there has a funny-ironic epitaph written on the cross, which summarizes his life, but also how it ended.
Sighet city, Hystorical Maramures Capital, is the testimony of the dictator regims that devastated the past century: the Memorial of the Communism Victims is in the prison where the Inter-War Romanian elite were devoured.
Traveling with “Mocanita”, the old Steam Train, you'll get a dream travel, over a wild area of Maramures. The forest narrow gauge railway of 76 inches accompanies Vaser Valey for almost 22 kilometers. Mocanita was built during 1924-1932, and ever since it has been working without interruption. Vaser River is the permanent companion of Mocanita passing over bridges and through tunnels, through endless forests, where the only inhabitants are the bears and wolves.
