Sighişoara
judetul Mureş
Ahh, Sighişoara (Sighisoara, Schässburg in German, and Segesvár in Hungarian), the birthplace of Vlad Ţepeş (Dracula or Vlad the Impaler). During the summer, the city is flooded with tourists.
As a popular tourist destination, especially among Dracula fans, Sighişoara is a perfectly preserved medieval town, nestled in an awe-inspiring, hilly countryside. The still-intact city walls, with their nine towers, encircle sloping cobbled stone streets lined with 16th century burgher houses.
Settled by the Romans, the town first appears in documents dating from 1280 as Castrumex. Saxon colonists settled here from the 12th century onwards, under whom traditional medieval trades such as goldsmithing, tailoring, and shoemaking flourished.
Prior to 1989 there were some 3,000 Saxons living in Sighişoara. After the Berlin wall came down, however, the Saxon community dwindled to less than 500 as many of its German citizens returned to their homeland.
Today the town still bustles, particularly on Wednesday and Saturday, when villagers and gypsies come into town on their horse-drawn wagons to sell their wares at the market.
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