En étant basés à Bucarest, c’était impensable qu’on n’irait pas de temps en temps en Transylvanie. Disons que c’est comme les Laurentides pour Montréal. On y va pour sortir de la ville mais dans ce cas-ci, il y a les Carpathes, son histoire tumultueuse et du patrimoine mondial désigné d’importance pour l’UNESCO. En ayant déjà abordé la région très connue de Bran-Brasov cet été, on s’est aventurés plus loin cette fois-ci.

The region of Transylvania is quite vast and the roads are usually one-way lanes in the mountains. We were lucky to be blessed by gorgeous fall weather so late in mid-October and not be in a hurry to get to our evening destination. And we booked our accommodations just a few days before leaving.

Donc, par un beau matin de semaine, on est partis direction Sighișoara, en prévoyant faire des arrêts en chemin. Sitôt avoir pris de l’essence en chemin juste après Brașov on dévie de notre itinéraire GPS et on se rend compte qu’on se rallonge un tant soit peu mais toujours dans la bonne direction…

First stop (unplanned), seen from the main road on the top of an hill, a good size citadelle, not in the guide book… hey what’s that? Let’s check it out! So we steered toward Citatea Feldioara (Marienburg in the German period) was believed to be build by the Teutonics Knights in the 13th century. Of course, what we visited has just gone through an extentive restauration as we have seen the before pictures and in the descriptions. There have been major investments to bring it to this level of beauty, hoping to preserve history but also to attract tourists in this region so close to Brașov (20 km). My last thought was to keep up with their news and come back for an eventual medieval festival!

Second stop… after going from village to village, we find a rural fortified church in Belin (in Hungarian: Bölön), in the Covasna county where we stop to have our lunch. We noticed that we had just stepped in the Hungarian part of Transylvania upon seeing the Hungarian flag on the porch of the church. The Székelys have a very strong presence in the Eastern part of Transylvania, living daily in their dialect since the 12th century. Anyway, the church was closed at the time we came as it would be expected in slightly off season and mid-week but the exterior was magnificent and very well maintained.

De retour sur notre itinéraire original sur la plus grande route et pays Saxon, notre troisième arrêt est la citadelle de Rupea perchée sur sa colline. On la visite et on repart… c’est reconstruit mais comme à moitié? Un site qui manque un peu de personalité et qui manque son coup pour la présenter dans son contexte. Mais peut-être que c’est seulement parce qu’ils y travaillent encore?

And our last visit before our stop for the night, was to Viscri. Completely out of the main road, their best defense was probably to being not easy to find! Charming village with different colored houses some dating back 300 years ago. It has surely benefited from all the attention drawn by the fact that Prince Charles made it his favorite area in Romania to come but at the same it doesn’t feel like it has changed that much. Viscri’s fortified church is part of the UNESCO World Heritage and unbelievably beautiful and imposing. The church was originally built by the Székelys (ethnic Hungarians or maygar) in the 12th century but when the Saxons (ethnic Germans) came later in the 12th century, they took “over” and this resulted in the Székelys being forced to move to southeast Transylvania (where we just been earlier on this day).

So, after that successful first day, our refuge for the night was to be within the medieval walls of Sighișoara.