Cetatea Sighișoarei

History

Transylvanian Saxon colonists began fortifying this hilltop around 1191, and by the 14th century the citadel bristled with 14 guild-funded towers — each built and defended by a different craft guild, from the surviving Clock Tower to the Tinsmiths' and Shoemakers' Towers — ringed by walls that grew to 14 meters in places against Ottoman raids. Vlad the Impaler was born here around 1431, while his father Vlad Dracul was garrisoned in the town on behalf of the Hungarian crown, in a house that still stands a few steps from the main square. Unlike many medieval citadels reduced to museum-piece ruins, Sighișoara's is still a living town: around a hundred families keep house behind its walls today. UNESCO listed it in 1999 as one of the best-preserved fortified medieval towns in Europe.