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reviews_and_ramblings ([personal profile] reviews_and_ramblings) wrote2009-05-02 03:50 pm

Around the World: Sighişoara

I already said in the past that my travel in Romania was an impromptu one, my aunt was planning to go and I bought a travel guide for her, and browsing the guide I was enthralled by all the possibilities and things to see. I went in winter, and spent 2 week all around the country, and we had to "run away" since we was with our own car and it was starting a real worrying snowstorm.

 
by Elisa, Sighisoara, Romania, 2003



Sighisoara was the last town we saw before leaving the country; it's the native town of Vlad Dracul, the future Dracula, and it's a really fascinating town, small but with some wonderful views.

Sighişoara (pronounced [sigiˈʃo̯ara]; German: Schäßburg; Hungarian: Segesvár; Latin: Castrum Sex) is a city and municipality on the Târnava Mare River in Mureş County, Romania. Located in the historic region Transylvania, Sighişoara has a population of 32,287 (2002).

During the 12th century, German craftsmen and merchants known as the Transilvanian 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 the actual Sighiṣoara by 1191. By 1280 it was known by the Latin name of Castrum Sex, and by 1298 by the Saxon name of Schespurch resp. Schaesbrich. 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 Transilvania, 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 minted coins 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 city was the setting for George I Rákóczi's election as Prince of Transylvania and King of Hungary in 1631. Sighişoara suffered military occupation, fires, and plagues during the 17th and 18th centuries.

The nearby plain of Albeşti was the site of the Battle of Segesvár, where the revolutionary Hungarian army led by Józef Bem was defeated by the Russian army led by Luders on 31 July 1849. A monument was constructed in 1852 to the Russian general Skariatin, who died in the battle. The Hungarian poet Sándor Petőfi is generally believed to have been killed in the battle, and a monument was constructed in his honor at Albeşti in 1897. After World War I Sighişoara passed with Transylvania from Austria-Hungary to the Kingdom of Romania.

Central Sighişoara has preserved in an exemplary way the features of a small medieval fortified city, it has been listed by the UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. Each year, a Medieval Festival takes place in the old citadel in July. (From Wikipedia)

[identity profile] scarlethyacinth.livejournal.com 2009-05-02 03:26 pm (UTC)(link)
:) I'm glad you enjoyed your stay in Romania. Indeed, my country has its faults - but it also does some good points, Sighisoara being one of them.

[identity profile] elisa-rolle.livejournal.com 2009-05-02 03:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Sighisoare, Bucovina, Peles, Iasc... so many wonderful places, and I saw only half the country ;-) Elisa

[identity profile] scarlethyacinth.livejournal.com 2009-05-02 03:37 pm (UTC)(link)
Too bad I didn't know in advance - I would have given you some tips. I actually just visited the monasteries in Northern Moldavia a few weeks ago, it's very beautiful around there, I just want to get a house around there and write. But anyway, who knows, maybe we were even in the same place and we didn't know about it :)).

[identity profile] elisa-rolle.livejournal.com 2009-05-02 03:45 pm (UTC)(link)
I went in Winter 2003, from Christmas time to the first week of the New Year. I entered the country from Oradea, went through Bistrita and Suceava, visited the Bucovina Country, then went down through Piatra Neamt and Iasc, Bacau, Bran and Peles and then came back through Sighisoara, Cluj Napoca and again Oradea. You live near some of these places? Elisa

[identity profile] scarlethyacinth.livejournal.com 2009-05-02 03:51 pm (UTC)(link)
Actually, as luck would have it, my home town is Bacau - since it was six years ago, I was very likely still there (I've only just recently moved to the capital Bucharest). It always amazes me, how small the world seems to be sometimes lol.

[identity profile] elisa-rolle.livejournal.com 2009-05-02 03:55 pm (UTC)(link)
If I remember well, we lost in Bacau LOL. We were only passing through in our route toward Bran, and there was a flood and the main street was interrupted, and they forced as to make a detour through a local street. At some point we found ourself in a very narrow street, along a railway if I remember well, and we realized that we probably took a wrong turn ;-)

[identity profile] scarlethyacinth.livejournal.com 2009-05-02 04:08 pm (UTC)(link)
LOL. I can't say I remember a flood 6 years ago, but then again, there are always floods in my area. If that's what you did, then you were very likely around the street where I live/used to live :))