1 day guide when you visit Sighisoara Tranylvania
If you only have one day here then its worth getting straight to the citadel
If you want to get the most of of the citadel then it is probably worth doing the DIGIGUIDE audio tour which lasts about 2.5 hours. This will give you a really good understanding of the Citadel and how the German settlers came to be here.
Visiting the Clock Tower Museum
This is probably the best place to start. The Clock Tower is visible from anywhere in town and has an interesting museum and a great view from the top.
During attacks the town councilors fled in the tower to defend it.
Beneath the tower is one of the main entrances to the citadel and the only direct connection to the lower part of the town.
Here you can see the gaps in the walls where the mighty oak doors and lattices would have been. In the first years after its construction the tower played more of a practical and strategic role than that of a symbol of the town.
Its main function was to defend the main entrance. For this reason, the lower part of the tower (13th/14th Century) is much simpler and stronger built than the rest (16th Century). The wall has an incredible width of almost two and a half meters. Further up, under the roof, the wall still almost one and a half meters.
Scientists figured out that the lower part is made from river stones and stone plates.
The citizens of Sighisoara always wanted to have the biggest and highest tower of Transylvania. For this reason they later raised it by another two floors.
With its total height of 64 meters, from the overlook on the sixth floor you have a breathtaking view on the Lower Town, the whole Citadel Hill and the surrounding area. In the 17th Century the Saxons installed the first clock in all of Transylvania. Then the Clock Tower received the name, “Master of Time”. At this time the clock mechanism was even made from wood.
There are many hidden symbols in the architecture of the Clock Tower many of them from astronomy, astrology and alchemy.
For example the figurines of the clock, pointing to the lower part of town, contain allusions to many symbols of alchemy. In total there are seven wood statuettes of which, when seen from below, only one is visible at a time. They are installed on a moveable round wooden plate. Each night at midnight the plate rotates, revealing the figure for the next day. The figures represent gods and goddesses of Greek and Roman mythology.
The eternal Vlad Tepes
Your first real taste of Vlad Tepes will probably be his Bronze statue.
Right between the Town Hall and the Monastery Church in the Cidatel you will find a bronze bust of Vlad Tepes who is said to have been born in Sighisoara. It is one of the most photographed objects in town. For any of you who are following the trail of Dracula, this is one of the best sites in Sighisoara.
The Vlad Tepes Birth House is easy to find. Just look across the street from the Monastery Church and you will see a yellow building with a little arch on the left side. Its a right in front of the Clock tower, and should be easy to find from the crowd of tourists that are bound to be huddled around the plaque on the wall outside.
 The VLAD DRACU HOUSE house is one of the most renown historical monuments in Sighisoara, visited by Romanian and foreign tourists alike due to its connection to the legend of the infamous Dracula. This house was inhabited between 1431 and 1435 by the Wallachian prince Vlad Dracul (known today mainly as Dracula). At that time Vlad Dracul coined money that pictured on one side a dragon, and on the other a vulture - which also was his royal seal. Today, the house is a museum and also hosts a large restaurant. The medieval room of the restaurant holds a beautiful XV century fresco of Vlad Dracul - the only known authentic portrayal of the man, making it a unique piece of art.
The restaurant (that houses 130 seats) offers international and local cuisine. Its specialty is "The Lunch of Prince Dracula", which is served with the Transilvanian "palinca" (double distilled plum brandy) and with a renown regional wine called "Vampire". The restaurant has also 2 patios that sit 60 people, and a wine cellar situated the ground floor that has 40 seats and serves wine and beer in mugs very much alike the ones used by the old Wallachian prince himself.
The Stag House
The Stag House faces the main Citadel square and is one of the oldest civil buildings in the citadel. In the 13th Century, during the first settling phase, it must have been a simple wood house. It developed through the centuries into a complex architectural masterpiece.
Records show that rich and prominent members of the community lived here.
Unfortunately this was one of the many buildings that burned down in the “Big Fire” of 1676. It was later rebuilt on the original foundations. An inscription on the wall facing the citadel square suggests that this was not the first time the building was damaged by fire.
Inside the house you can find restored medieval murals, still in very good condition because of the Messerschmitt foundation Munich which completely renovated house a few years ago.
The building has a café, a restaurant, as well as a small hotel. A very special guest stays here almost every year. We are talking about Prince Charles who we already mentioned in context with the Mihai Eminescu Trust.
The Roman Catholic Church
The Roman Catholic Church is next to the north wall of the Citadel, overlooking the Tarnava Mare river.
It was built on the foundation of one of the old Franciscan Nun Monastery. It existed until the 16th century.
After the people in Sighisoara converted to Protestantism, the Franciscan monastery remained unused and burned down later in 1892.
A new church was built on top of the old walls in an eclectic style and Neogothic - Neoromanique elements. The shape of the building is especially interesting. Seen from above, the church looks like a Latin cross.
The Defensive wall of the citadel and the 14 Defensive Towers
As you walk around the citadel you will notice the defensive towers. One of them is now used as a Radio Station, and another a theatre.
The defensive wall which surrounds the 'Upper Town' has a length of more then 900 meters. Originally the defensive system had 14 towers from which 9 still exist today. In the 14th Century the Saxon hand crafts were already highly developed.
The craftsmen formed so named guilds - professionally organized groups which existed for almost each trade and in which the work of the different craftsmen was coordinated.
At its peak Sighisoara had more than 20 guilds in which 25 different professions were organized. This was a European record for that time. The town had more guilds than Vienna or any other big city in Western Europe.
All but one - of the 14 defensive towers - have the names of craft professions because they belonged in former times to the so named GUILDS of the town. Locksmith’s Tower, Fisherman’s Tower, Shoemaker’s Tower, Tailors tower.
The church on the hill
High up on top of the hill, stands one of the most precious buildings of Transylvania. The church, which may have been here for more than 500 years, is clearly visible.
The Saxon tradition was deeply connected with the belief that God has a central role in everyday life. The position of the church, in the center of town, at the citadels’ highest point symbolizes the importance of god and religion for the townspeople. The worldly parallel to the Church on the Hill is situated on the Lower Plateau - the Clock Tower.
It ruled, with its clock, upon the work and market life of the Citadel Square and the Lower Town. These two poles of medieval life complemented each other perfectly and remind us today of the principle of olden times: Ora et Labora (praying and working).
Outside
Compared with the richly ornamented inside of the church building, the outside is much simpler. Besides the richly decorated Gothic door frames of the south and north entrance only a group of four stone sculptures are apparent as decoration on the outside.
Inside
The main attraction of the interior is the precious Altar of St. Martin standing in the middle of an elegant sanctuary, brightly lit by the tall, narrow windows of the choir.
The colourful murals of the church, whose fragments can be admired on almost all of the walls today, were whitewashed in the year 1776. They were probably made by different artists from the 14th to the 16th Centuries. Before the walls got repainted, exact copies of the old murals were made on parchment - which unfortunately got lost over the Centuries.
Crypt
As we have already mentioned, beneath the current choir, lays the only crypt in Transylvania. Situated at the end of a gloomy tunnel . Within the walls of the tunnel to the crypt, are 60 recesses, where the Saxons buried the wealthiest inhabitants of the citadel. The building is now the main church of the German Evangelical Parish.
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