Transylvania, from the Saxon villages to Bran Castle

From the Carpathians to the Saxon hills

Transylvania is a plateau of hills ringed by the Carpathians. The trip starts in Brașov, at the foot of Mount Tâmpa, which you can climb by cable car. To the north-west, the road crosses meadows and beech woods, where you meet horse-drawn carts. Most Saxon villages have a church surrounded by ramparts at their centre.

Then come the towns. Sighișoara is a citadel still lived in, perched on its hill. Sibiu has kept its large squares and its roofs with dormer windows shaped like eyes. Further north-west, you go down into the Turda salt mine.

On the way back, the road runs along the Făgăraș Mountains, the highest in the country, which rise to 2,544 metres. From Cârțișoara, the Transfăgărășan climbs in hairpin bends to Lake Bâlea, at more than 2,000 metres. It only opens in summer, from June or July to October, depending on the snow. The road then passes through Râșnov and Bran, then over the Predeal Pass. On the other side, Sinaia and Peleș are already in Muntenia.

In Prejmer, the round wall rises to nearly twelve metres. More than 270 small rooms are built into it: families kept their food stores there. Biertan was the seat of the Lutheran bishops from 1572 to 1867. According to tradition, couples who wanted to divorce were locked in together there, with a single bed and a single plate.

After 1990, most of the remaining Saxons left for Germany. In Viscri, only a handful remain, but the village has kept its pastel houses. Some churches only open in the warmer months, and the key is sometimes kept by a caretaker.

Dracula, between legend and history

Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a character in a novel published in 1897. Nothing suggests that Stoker ever came to Transylvania. He took the name from Vlad III the Impaler, Prince of Wallachia in the 15th century, nicknamed Drăculea. According to tradition, Vlad was born around 1431 in Sighișoara, where a house in the citadel bears his name.

Bran Castle is presented as Dracula’s castle, but historians believe Vlad never lived there. The Saxons of Brașov built it at the end of the 14th century to guard the pass. In 1920, the town gave it to Queen Marie of Romania, who made it her favourite residence.

What not to miss

1. 1The citadel of SighișoaraThe Clock Tower and the covered stairway that climbs to the Church on the Hill.
2. 2The Black Church in BrașovA large Gothic church, blackened, so they say, by the fire of 1689.
3. 3The Turda salt mineA Ferris wheel and an underground lake, in a mine closed in 1932.
4. 4Sibiu and the ASTRA MuseumThe Bridge of Lies from 1859 and, in the forest, more than 300 rural buildings in the open air.
5. 5The citadel of Alba IuliaA star-shaped fortress, where the union of Transylvania with Romania was proclaimed on 1 December 1918.
6. 6Peleș CastleKing Carol I’s residence in Sinaia, opened in 1883 and enlarged until 1914.

Transylvania in pictures

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Bran Castle on its rock, against the wooded hills.

The Transylvanian table

The food is hearty. You eat sarmale, stuffed cabbage leaves, with mămăligă, a maize polenta, and sour cream. For dessert, papanași are fresh-cheese doughnuts, served with cream and jam.

The Hungarian-speaking Szeklers make kürtőskalács, a dough wrapped around a cylinder and baked over embers. The Târnava hills produce white wines, such as those of Jidvei. In guesthouses, you are often offered țuică, a plum brandy.