In Transylvania you
\nare going to find fortresses and medieval castles, caves and salt mines,
\nbreathtaking views and last but not least, traditional savoury dishes, which
\ngained international recognition along the years. The region’s tourist
\nobjectives are so diverse and many that it would be impossible to visit them
\nall in just a couple of weeks. Today we’d like to take you on a journey to the
\nregion’s major hotspots.<\/p>\n
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Our first stop
\nis in Alma Vii, an old village in a hilly region first documented around 1209.
\nThe village is famous for its church, which was erected two centuries later and
\nwas fortified in early 16th century. According to Mihaela Turk,
\nproject manager with the Mihai Eminescu Trust Foundation, the fortress’ four
\ntowers have been restored as part of a project funded by Norway, Lichtenstein
\nand Iceland.<\/p>\n
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Mihaela Turk: Each tower has its own theme. We have the Clock Tower, aka the Gate
\nTower, the Lard Tower, the Ice Tower or the Grain Tower. We have tried to
\nrestore these buildings according to their original function and nowadays they
\ncan also host various events, such as mini-conferences or exhibitions.<\/p>\n
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In order to
\nfully experience the genuine flavour of Transylvania, accommodation in a
\ntraditional house is a must. You will have the sensation that you are living in
\nan authentic museum, a time capsule. Here is again Mihaela Turk with more on
\nthis issue. <\/p>\n
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Mihaela Turk: We don’t want to offer standard accommodation facilities like TV
\nsets, Internet, all the bells and whistles of modern accommodation. These rooms
\nare kept very simple with whitewashed walls and old pieces of furniture that
\nhave been refurbished. They have wooden floors covered in traditional
\nmulti-colour carpets. We have refurbished these rooms only with traditional
\nmaterials, like wood, stone, sand and lime.<\/p>\n
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Our journey
\ncontinues to one of Transylvania’s most developed cities, Cluj-Napoca, also dubbed
\nSilicon Valley, as this is where some of Romania’s best programmers are
\nworking. The city is also known for the big gigs and events that it hosts all
\nthroughout the year such as the Untold and Electric Castle festivals, or the
\nInternational Film Festival. <\/p>\n
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This is also
\nwhere the oldest cookery book in Romania, dating back to the 15th
\ncentury, has recently been re-edited. Tourists are impressed by the huge
\nvariety of churches in Cluj. Here one can find on the same street several
\nchurches, Reformed, Roman-Catholic, Greek-Catholic or Unitarian. Here is Marius
\nOprea, a guide with the local Tourist Info Center with more on this marvelous
\ncity in western Romania. <\/p>\n
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Marius Oprea:There are several
\nhistorical monuments such as the
\nSaint Michael Roman-Catholic Church, the Mathia Corvin statues, the Banffy
\nPalace, which houses the Art Museum, the Metropolitan Cathedral, the Lucian
\nBlaga National Theatre and of course the Museum Square. These are all located
\nin the city center within easy access on foot. The Fortress Hill is another
\ninteresting place, which offers panoramic views of the city, then there are
\nalso the ruins of the former Habsburg fortress, and the Botanical Garden, one
\nof the most visited places in Cluj. Also worth visiting is the Romului Vuia
\nEthnographic Park, the oldest of this kind in Romania. Cluj-Napoca has always
\nbeen an open city, which can be visited any time of the year. <\/p>\n
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Marius Oprea has
\nextended an invitation for us to visit the other hotspots in the county as
\nwell. Among these there is the Turda salt mine, one of the most visited tourist
\nobjectives in Romania.<\/p>\n
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Marius Oprea: Most of the tourists who have made it to Cluj have also visited the
\nTurda salt mine as it is only half an hour drive from the city. This salt mine
\nis unique in Romania and maybe in this part of Europe. It is a former salt mine
\nwith several levels, which has been recently restored with EU funds and
\nnowadays looks like a genuine underground city. It offers a series of
\nfacilities both in terms of treatment and entertainment and visitors can even
\ndrive a boat across an underground lake. <\/p>\n
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Transylvania is
\nalso home to one of the very few inhabited citadels in Europe, Sighisoara.
\nSighisoara citadel, also known as Schasburg, was included in the UNESCO world
\nheritage back in 1999. The most outstanding monument there is the Clock Tower,
\nwhich has hosted the town’s history museum since 1899. Nicolae Tescula, the
\ndirector of the museum, has more:<\/p>\n
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Nicolae
\nTescula: The Clock Tower was built in
\nthe 14th century. It hosted the town hall until the religious
\nreform, and it is 64 m high. A weathercock is guarding the town from top of the
\ntower, telling us whether it’s going to rain or the weather will be fine. Also
\nimpressive are the figurines, like the drummers that tell the exact time. There
\nare also figurines symbolizing Justice, Peace and the Executioner. The
\nfigurines that represent the days of the week change their position at
\nmidnight. The mechanism is quite old, as it was built in 1906, but the first
\nclock mechanism ever documented in Sighisoara goes back to the 17th
\ncentury.<\/p>\n
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These are just
\nsome of Transylvania’s landmarks that are definitely worth visiting. The list
\nis definitely longer, and we will present to you other attractions in the area
\nin the future editions of our regular feature. <\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
(translated by
\nbill)<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Transylvania is a perfect combination of culture and traditions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":83019,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43423],"tags":[31037,33906,30413,44210],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-149860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travellers-guide","tag-oprea","tag-sighisoara","tag-transylvania","tag-turk"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n