Like most modern "Made for tourists" hotels, this one loses a lot of charm in the daylight. We took daytime photos and I found a little market with hand knitting which I quite liked. I loved some hats, but as with most souvenir places were too expensive.

Were supposed to meet Dan at 09:30, but he did not arrive until 10:15, because he had left his mobile phone in his room, and the cleaners had found it. While I was waiting, David went to the toilet, and also managed to stumble upon Dracula's Tomb.

The road to/from this hotel is under reconstruction, and as such, is terrible at best. We stopped at Bistri?a to visit the evangelical church that had burnt down, which we saw photos of in Bra?ov. There were lots of brass bands playing in the town for some reason.

At Târgu Mure? we saw another fortified church built in 1491 by Hungarians, not Saxons. This church was closed, and the key holder had gone home, so we just strolled around the outside. We then visited the Cultural Centre / Art Gallery. This building has the most amazing stained glass windows. There are 12 of them in the 45 metre hallway. The curator put on a horrible recording explaining the images on the windows from an old compact cassette (remember those?). We then looked at the concert hall (complete with 4463 pipe organ) and the art gallery. On the way back to the car, Dan took me to buy a banana and on the way we found the first half decent pizza in Romania. We bought one slice for 5 RON and then David went to McDonalds and bought a Double Cheeseburger. They have free wi-fi, and I discovered a new menu item - the Mc Toast. It is two pancakes sandwiching ham and melted cheese. We then returned to the van and drove to Sighi?oara.

Before the dinner and halloween party, we walked up the street to a brandy tasting session, where we took a liking to the Fruit of the Forest brandy, and even bought a small bottle.
We went to the halloween party which was fun until after the main course when they started playing house/dance music VERY loudly. April and Steve won the costume party.

I got into Sighisorara in the evening and spent the rest of the day getting to know some great people in the hostel (Nathan's Villa). The next day I hiked up into the old town with one of my new hostel buddies. It's a beautiful city. And is also where the historical Dracula figure was born. There was a lovely overgrown German cemetery and a very cool old clock tower that had a little wooden boy beating a drum on the hour. After exploring the town for a bit we checked out of the hostel and (with the saftey of Rob) hitched to Brasov with a really nice Romanian waiter. I then checked into a guest house, that left a little something to be desired but was right in the center of old town, and explored Brasov til it was dark. The best part of Brasov? The ridiculously silly hollywood style sign on the hill. The hardest part about Romania in general? The thousands of stray dogs that I can't take home or rescue and make my heart break. There are sooo many great dogs out roming the streets looking for food and love.

We hit the road, traveling the Transylvanian countryside by car... which, btw, is amazing.  Exceptionally green, rolling hills, dotted with historic houses, located in front of towering mountains.  Just driving the sinuous roads between cities is a treat.  Sighisoara boasts an old midevil town with a perimeter defense wall.  It was Vlad's actual place of residence & thus had all the Dracula tourist stuff.  I wandered into some private property (by accident) and ran into the owner.  After getting questioned about my "function" there, he put me to work helping him move lawn equipment for his impending wife's birthday party.  He turned out to be a very nice German, and showed me around his amazing yard - which had to have cost a mint, as it was near the highest point of the city & had exclusive views to certain areas.  When he discovered I was intending to head to New Zealand, he gave me his son's contact info - who just so happens to live in Aukland & offers out his spare room to traveling friends of the family.

I love the way the Universe works.

Our "hotel" for the evening was a 400 year old house with the historical landmark status to prove it.  It was a private residence along the edge of the old city.  The spare rooms were rented out by the home owners & all things considered I thought it was a cool place to stay.

sighisoara, the birthplace of vlad tepes, aka dracula.  very small place, though not unpleasant. not a lot there once you have looked around the citadel. its a very quiet place, pretty in a lot of ways, but in many ways unremarkable. got off the train to kids begging for our drinks. well, after sitting on a hot train yet again, there was no chance. i know i should have some symathy, but that is MY water, and its as precious to me as gold dust! haha. and yeh, sooner or later im ssure that will come back to haunt me! haha.
saw the building dracula was born and lived in while young... its now a restaurant. bit dissappointing. a three star one! haha.
so, moving on to budapest next. overnight train, then a couple of days with ajmes, a couple with rach and holly. should be good hopefully!!

Given I got the entire day to go in Brasov I want to go and see another small city in Transylvania. It is also an old Saxon town and it is just a few hours train ride away from Brasov. So on the train to go and see this place.

Sighisoara is another little Saxon town which is famous for its old town - and of course as the birth place of Vlad Thebes himself. He lived in this tiny town until the age of 4 which would probably make the place a Dracula tourism magnet in itself even if there where no attractive old town around it.

First thing I do when I get to the train station in Sighisoara is to see when there is a return train. I look up at the board and see there is a train which is listed as sosire at a bit after 15 and one at around 17.30 - perfect there is several return trains to choose from. The first one will only give me a bit over 2 hours in the town and the second more than four - hence I initially aim for the second train.

From the train station it is only a short walk up to the old town - on the way old horse drawn carts are going past me on the streets of the new town. This always makes me think I have travelled a bit backwards in time to the age of grandparents or even great grand parents.

I walk up the hill past the Orthodox Church and the river - and there I enter the old town. If I thought Brasov where a bit of a German town I just got to the heartland of Germany. Sighisoara is everything you would connect with an old German town. Walking the streets you pass old village house which could be anywhere in Germany and the churches is classic Lutheran German churches. There is a covered stairway leading all the way up to a church - you walk up there through the dim lighting and get to the main church of the old town. At this church there is the town cemetery - and when you walk out there to take a look you soon notice all the names are German names. And when there is some writing on the tombstones it is all in old German. Most of the graves are pretty old - but there is a few which is only a couple of years old. It is the last people from the old German population who still live in the area who get buried on the old German graveyard.

I keep walking around the town for a couple of hours but it is a really tiny little place and I start to wonder if I want to go back on the first train - but this would mean I would have to rush back to the station - so I just wonder a bit more around town until I am sure I have walked on every street in the old town at least once - several of the streets I pasted more than once.

In the end I can't spend the full two extra hours in the old town so I got to go to an internet and do something else to kill time. Then back to the station - and I get a train ticket - but the time is all wrong - the train leaves a few minutes before the train I wanted to get on. Keeping in mind my recent train incident I want to make sure I get on the right train - and then I realize my Romanian is not quite as good as I thought. Sosire means arrival hence the train I had seen on the board in the station when I arrived did not depart at a bit after 17.30 - it arrived. Departure in Romanian is plecare - luckily there is a departure and arrival at more or less the same time - hence I don't have to hang around the train station too long.

Back in Brasov I really don't have too much on the agenda except getting something to eat before I will be leaving for the station at night to go for my long and actually unwanted overnight train ride. One little issue with eating in Romania is trying to get a beer to go with the meal. But for some reason it is virtually impossible in several places to get a local beer - there is a long list of foreign beer on the menu - all Tuborg, Tuborg Gold, Carlsberg - and so on. But I have not gone to Romania to be drinking Danish beers - I want the local stuff. And it is not good enough that the beer is brewed in Romania - the Tuborgs come in different bottles than back home - I want local stuff. If you do insist a little and look all the way down to the last beer on the menu it is usually a local one - so I can avoid the Danish beers in the end.

In the bad old days with high prices on air travel I always took overnight trains to escape the coldness and rain in Denmark to get down to the warmth and sunshine around the Mediterranean. But  for many years I have never really wanted to travel by overnight train - and I have not done that in about a decade or so - un till last year when it kind of worked out I had to take a overnight train across Bulgarian - and then afterwards one down in Egypt. So it looks like that overnight train travel somehow has caught up on me. This train is the kind of train which has two classes of cars for the overnight journey first and second seats - no choices for sleeper cars or anything like that - you just have to try to sleep in the compartment you are in - fortunately it turns out the train is more or less empty so you can have a row of seat to yourself to try to stretch out - which is not all that easy when you are slightly above the average height in northern Europe which makes you way above average height in Romania and to tall for a standard compartment row of seat - but you make do with what is available I guess.

For more infos on most of Sighisoara you can have a look on: www.sighisoara-transilvania.ro  

Enjoy :-)

In almost every culture of the world there are distilled drinks that have been produced by remote communities for generations. Some are legal - others are illegal. But wherever these drinks survive, they are produced and consumed with a passion which influences most aspects of everyday life. The spirit lives in the blood of the people who produce it, and helps to shape their common destiny. These drinks are rarely seen or exported outside their local area of production. Romania has his own brandy called "TUICA", so if u got the chance to taste it u will never forgot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!lol

A group af Wallachian noblemen bringing with them a princely sceptre made most people living in Nurnberg, the city of imperial diets, defy the cold weather and take part, on February 8, 1431 in an important historic event: emperor Sigismund of Luxemburg conceded the ruler-ship in Wallachia to Vlad who has been living at his court for eight years. That very day, emperor Sigismund gave his favourite a necklace and a golden medalion with a dragon engraved on it, the badge of the knights of the Order bearing the name of the mystical animal.

Waiting for corornation, Vlad and his family went to Sighisoara, Transylvania, where he set up a mint. For the first two monetary emissions, Vlad used his signet emblem, the dragon. Therefore, the Romanians whose word stock is mainly Latin, nicknamed him Dracul - Dracula (from the Latin Draco-Onis. In Romanian Drac means Devil. This nickname turned into a surname for his descendants, Vlad, his second son being known as such. He spend his childhood in Sighisoara, was taken hostage by Turks, then went to his uncle Iancu de Hunedoara, a Romanian nobleman (whose daughter Vlad later married) becoming prince of Wallachia on August 22, 1456). Known as one of the most dreaded enemies of the Ottoman Empire, Vlad Dracul started organizing the state, the army, the law, applying death penalty by impaling all those he considered enemies: highwaymen, robbers, beggars, cunning priests, treacherous noblemen, usurper Saxons, who tried to replace him either by his cousin Dan cel Tanar (Dan the Young) or by his natural brother Vlad Calugarul (Vlad the Monk).

The Ottoman historians nicknamed him Vlad Tepes, as he came to be known in Romanian historiography, but he used to sign with his father's name, Dracul. This is testified in Bucharest's first documentary mentioning, dated September 20, 1459 and in the portrait of Odhsenbach Stambuch from Stuttgart.

Arrested by his coming brother-in-law, Matei Corvin, because of a treacherous malvolent, Vlad Dracul spent more than ten years in prison, at Visegrad near Buda.

Back to the throne in 1476 with the help of Stefan cel Mare (Stephen the Great), prince of Moldavia, of the Senate of the Republic of Venice and of the pope Sixt 4th, Vlad resumes his fight against the Ottomans but towards the end of the same year is killed at Snagov by Laiota Basarab who followed him to the throne of Wallachia.

His life and unbelievable actions tempted many writers. A real fashion of Dracula the vampire voievode, books, was born, with great success, being printed edition after edition, in millions of copies. The subject was over taken noisily in cinematography (in more than a hundred movies), awaking in film fans a vivid curiosity.

Club Aristocrat, one of the best clubs in Transylvania. The best is to go in weekend. www.club-aristocrat.ro The Club has also a cinema that is running from Monday to Friday, as well an areea with a casino. During the weekend it is just clubing, great music, dance.....

So I made it to Bucharest just now.  I will reserve judgment until after my first day tomorrow, but so far, and after being in Brasov, yikes!  Good thing I got here during the day because the walk from the station was pretty sketchy, although when I tripped some guys said something thoughtful I'm sure.  Anyway, it hasn't been very pretty so far.  However, I decided not to skip over this place like many do because I've just really fallen in love with the Romanians.

First things first, I finally got up out of bed yesterday.  I spent a lot of time on the internet with family and just riding an emotional roller coaster, but I told myself I had to "live in the now" and enjoy where I am at.  So I made it to Sighisoara, Vlad Tepes' birthplace, yesterday.  Unfortunately I picked the worst weather day to be there as it was rainy and unseasonably cold, but as it turned out, the train ride to and from was the most fun part anyway.  It's about a two hour ride there, so I grabbed the ten o'clock train in the morning.  My cabin was full of Romanian women having a very boisterous conversation.  I longed to know what they were talking about but just sat in silence.  When we hit Sighisoara, a family got up to leave and I wasn't sure we were there so inquired with the ladies, pronouncing the name as best I could (see gee shwah rah) and they motioned for me to get off.  They then asked me if I spoke German, which I indicated no, but the family heard I spoke English and got excited, asking their younger daughter to talk to me in English.  It was so cute because she was shy to do so, but I could see her parents begging her to say something to me.  They apologized for not talking to me during the ride because they would if they knew I spoke English, and then they bid be a good day.

The station was tiny and I inquired with info about the last train back and the gal told me the time.  I, of course, asked for a map of the town, and she smiled and said no, town is small.  I laughed at that and basically kept an eye upward to the Citadel where the clock tower and basically old town was located, finding my way up.  The town was very pretty, as most are in Transylvania.  I found the clock tower, which is a museum inside as you climb up.  Some things were in English at least.  At the top is a great view of the old town and new town.  They also had these great plaques afixed on each side, pointing to different cities and how many kilometers away.  I took a picture of the NY sign as it was the only one from the States, but then realized I had been or was going to a lot of the cities, so I took pics of those as well, perhaps for a scrapbook page someday. 

Vlad Tepes was born in a house in town, now a restaurant, right near the square of the old town.  I stepped inside there briefly, but made may way to a cafe for a hot chocolate as the rain and cold was starting to get to the bone.  I found some Americans inside.  It turns out the guy is from Denver and is in Romania to tend to his gold mine.  Interesting indeed.

After about two and a half hours dodging rain, I decided to head back.  The town is worth visiting to be sure but on a better day.  I was still glad I got there.  I got lost getting back to the station as I left the old town a different way, but the gal was right, it's a small town after all.  I bought my ticket for the slow train as it was the next one back.  Slow trains are ones that stop at each town, are cheaper, and so you have to deal a lot more with people begging and trying to sell you stuff.  I was ready for dry clothes so agreed to that, and then this gal waiting for a train asked me if I was going to Brasov.  It turned out she was from a small town outside of there and was taking the same train.  We shared hot chocolate (second cup) before the time to leave.  She is a teacher here although she spent two years in England as a nanny.  She studied Religion and English, so she primarily teaches English.  We chatted the whole way back toward Brasov.  Even though she was born in Romania, she identifies as a Hungarian as Transylvania was a part of Hungary up until Romania became the country it is today in 1918, and her family's heritage is Hungarian.  She said there are still tensions between the Hungarians/Romanians, some even refusing to marry outside of their cultures, but said that is not as much of a problem today as dealing with the Romanese who refuse to work (commonly referred to as gypsies, but that is a derogatory term so they should be referred to as Roma).  The country is trying to figure out how to deal with that situation mostly now.  We also talked about the history of the area generally, United States politics, and on the lighter side, the weather.  It was a very interesting and educational conversation to say the least.  She also is about my age and dealing with pressure to get married. I told her that I've already told my family I'm going to be like my aunt Minnie, an old spinster, just to take the pressure off.  She laughed at that.

We hit this tiny town of Ormenis, where there was a building and some houses, and she had to say goodbye.  She advised me to move to another cabin with others, but I just kept in my seat thinking it's only another 30-40 minutes to Brasov.  Well, the next stop my cabin filled with five Romanian men.  I thought maybe I should move, but they seemed harmless enough.  Again, lots of boisterous conversation, so I just stared out the window until all of a sudden complete silence.  I looked at them and they were all staring at me, so I smiled.  The one had his camera out and was playing music, so they motioned asking if I liked it.  I said yes, and they went about their conversation.  We got near Brasov and they were trying to talk to me again.  Romanian sounds a bit like Spanish, and at least some words are similar, so I told them un poco Enspanol, but that didn't help the conversation, so they just smiled and bid me farewell at the station.

I have to say the whole time I've been in Romania I've found the people here so friendly, probably the friendliest on my trip.  Sure there are the Irish and Scottish, definitely a friendly lot, but the Romanians have been so great.  My bus ride to the station this morning a woman saw me standing with my backpack on and so told me to sit down and then chatted with me about my trip.  I don't know, maybe it's because of the contrast to Hungary where I found some of the people bothered when I spoke English, at times sighing and seemingly annoyed.  In any event, I really just enjoy the people here, so much so I was willing to stop in Bucharest despite what I've heard.  Again, I won't pass judgment until after tomorrow.  I'm giving it a day at least.

I think this hospitality has shaken me loose from my recent despair and worry over Butter, and I've managed to resign myself to just believing Butter will return and I'll see him when I get home.   It's mostly denial, but it's easy to do when you are in a foreign country and just worrying about navigating about.  I know my family is doing all that can be done at home, so I will just await good news from here.

I will add some text just to give you an introduction about the history of the city.

The town of  Sighisoara is the most enchanting of all the Transylvanian towns. Its medieval buildings, gilded roofs and towers have been unspoiled by war or modern industry. The Citadel, built by the Saxons in the 12th Cent. rises above the town and is preserved as a museum. The notorious Vlad Tepes, popularly called Dracula, was born in this town.

Sighisoara, situated in Romania center-in Transylvania province, is renewed by its architecture dating from 14^th century.
You have to walk up from the city to the medieval citadel and enter throwgh the 60-meter-tall clock tower (built in 1360).
The ocher-colored house named "Casa Vlad Dracul", where the father of Vlad Tepes, better known as Dracula, once lived, now is a cozy restaurant. You can find inside Gothic-style furniture and serve good soups and traditional Romanian dishes.
The convered stairway with 176 steps was made in 17^th century. Museums, the Church on trop of the Hill (14^th century) and the Monastery Church (15^th century) both built in the Gothic style.

If you came in Romania in July don't miss the "Medieval Art and Theatre Festival".  Actors wearing medieval clothes play drama in the citadel and music bands play on an installed stage in the center of the city. Beer and "mici" (traditional prepared meat) are provided by all the brand name beer factories from Romania during the festival.

Founded by Transylvanian Saxons during the 12th century, Sighisoara (Schassburg in German) still stands as one of the most beautiful and best-preserved medieval towns in Europe. Designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, this perfectly intact 16th century gem with nine towers, cobbled streets, burgher houses and ornate churches rivals the historic streets of Old Prague or Vienna for atmospheric magic. It is also the birthplace of Vlad Dracula, also known as Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler), ruler of the province of Walachia from 1456 to 1462. It was he who inspired Bram Stoker’s fictional creation, Count Dracula.

In the 14th and 15th centuries, the economic growth recorded by Sighisoara’s industrious craftsmen and tradesmen ensured financial means for the construction of a strong defense system provided with 14 towers and several bastions provided with gunnery directed to all four cardinal points. Each tower was built, maintained and defended by a craft guild. Among the most striking is the 14th century Clock Tower. This tower controlled the main gate of the half-mile-long defensive wall and stored the city’s treasures.

Sighisoara was not the biggest or richest of the seven Saxon walled citadels in Transylvania, but it has become one of the most popular. A walk through the town’s hilly streets with their original medieval architecture, magical mix of winding cobbled alleys, steep stairways, secluded squares, towers, turrets and enchantingly preserved citadel, is like stepping back in time. 

City Landmarks  
 
Sighisoara’s Citadel  
For several centuries, Sighisoara was a military and political stronghold. During the 14th – 16th centuries, the Saxon and Magyar craft guilds erected towers around the citadel walls to protect the town from Turkish raids. Laid out on two to four levels, the towers stored ammunition and food supplies and were provided with firing windows for cannons, shells and arrows. Of the original fourteen towers and five artillery bastions, nine towers and two bastions have survived the test of time. 
You can still spot the Blacksmiths' Tower, Butchers' Tower, Cobblers' Tower , Furriers' Tower, Ropemakers' Tower, Tailors' Tower, Tanners' Tower and Tinsmiths' Tower. The ninth tower still standing is the Clock Tower itself. 

The Citadel Square 
This quaint small square lies at the heart of the citadel. In the old days, street markets, craft fairs, public executions and witch trials were held here. From this square, you can easily access the main attractions of Sighisoara.  

The Clock Tower

Sighisoara’s main point of attraction is the Clock Tower, also known as the Council Tower, built in the second half of the 14th century and expanded in the 16th century. The four small corner turrets on top of the tower symbolized the judicial autonomy of the Town Council, which could apply, if necessary, the death penalty.  

After a fire in 1676 when the town's gunpowder deposits located in the Tailors’ Tower exploded, Austrian artists rebuilt the roof of the tower in its present baroque style and in 1894, colorful tiles were added.

The dial overlooking the Lower City features a set of seven figurines, each representing the pagan gods who personified the days of the week: Diane (Monday), Mars (Tuesday), Mercury (Wednesday), Jupiter (Thursday), Venus (Friday), Saturn (Saturday)and the Sun (Sunday).

The Clock Tower served as the gathering place for the City Council until 1556. Since 1899, it has housed the History Museum. From the top of the Clock Tower, visitors can look down on the red-tiled roofs of the Old Town and see intact 16th century Saxon houses lining the narrow cobblestone streets. Today, merchants and craftsmen still go about their business, as they did centuries ago.

The Church of the Dominican Monastery  
Not far from the Clock Tower stands the Church of the Dominican Monastery. First attested in a document in 1298 as part of a Dominican monastic settlement, the church became the Saxons’ main Lutheran church in 1556. The monastic complex demolished in 1888 and its place was taken by the present town hall. Only the church has remained from the original structure. 
Inside the church, you can admire some valuable artistic objects, such as the bronze font dating back to 1440, the stone doorframe carved in 1570 in Transylvanian renaissance style and built into the northern wall of the church, the collection of 16th and 17th century Oriental carpets, a baroque organ and a fine altarpiece from 1680. Classical and baroque concerts are often held here.

The Church on the Hill  
To the north of the Clock Tower stands one of the most representative gothic-style structures in Transylvania, the Church on the Hill – so called because of its location on the School Hill (1,373 ft high). First mentioned in a document in 1345 and superposed on a former Roman basilica, its construction lasted almost 200 years.  
Inside the beautifully restored interior, you can admire fragments of *murals from 1483-1488, the period prior to Martin Luther’s Reformation, and renaissance-style furniture. The gothic altarpiece dedicated to St Martin dates from 1520 and was painted by Johann Stoss, the son of the renowned sculptor, Veit Stoss from Nürnberg. The three wood-carved coats of arms, found in the anterooms of the side naves, belonged to Mathias Corvin and his wife, Beatrix, the Transylvanian prince Stephen Bathory of Nyir (1479-1493) and the king of Poland and Hungary, Wladislav the 3rd.

The Scholars’ Stairs 
Located at the end of School Street and connecting the Citadel Square with the Church on the Hill, the Scholars’ Stairs, or Schoolboys’ Stairs, as it was also known, makes for an interesting piece of medieval architecture. Built in 1642, the covered stair-passage was meant to facilitate and protect schoolchildren and churchgoers on their climb to the school and church during wintertime. Originally, the stairs had 300 steps, but after 1849, their number was reduced to 175.

Vlad Dracul’s House  
The Vlad Dracul House is located in the Citadel Square, close to the Clock Tower. This ocher-colored house is the place where Vlad Tepes, the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s famous Dracula, was born in 1431 and lived with his father, Vlad Dracul, until 1435 when they moved to Targoviste. A wrought-iron dragon hangs above the entrance. The ground floor of the house serves as a restaurant, while the first floor is home to the Museum of Weapons.

The Stag House  
Built in the 17th century in Transylvanian renaissance style, the house draws its name from the stag skull set on one of the corners of its façade. Recent restorations revealed an external mural depicting the stag's body. Nowadays, the building houses a hotel, with a ground floor that doubles as a cellar bar. 

The Citadel Towers  
The half-mile defense wall was initially provided with 14 towers, of which nine have been preserved to this day. Among the most impressive are: 
 
The Ropemakers' Tower

Dating from the 13th century and standing above the pre-Saxon citadel walls, the Ropemakers' Tower is one of the oldest buildings in Sighisoara. Its role was to defend - together with the Goldsmiths’ Tower - the northwest corner of the hill. Nowadays, the tower is the home of the caretaker of the Saxon cemetery, located next to the Church on the Hill. 
 
The Tailors' Tower

This imposing tower was raised in the 14th century by the richest guild in town. Initially as tall as the Clock Tower, its upper part was destroyed in the 1676 fire, when the town's gunpowder deposits, located here, exploded. The Tailors’ Tower, with its two vaulted galleries which used to have huge oaken gates with an iron lattice, also serves as the second access road into the citadel. The tower was restored in 1935. 
 
The Cobblers' Tower

The Cobblers’ Tower, located in the northeastern part of the town, was first mentioned in documents dating from the mid-16th century but it was rebuilt from scratch in 1650. The tower bears the influence of baroque architecture, featuring a hexagonal base with sides of different lengths. Its roof, resembling a pointy helmet, houses a small observation tower.

The History Museum  
Admission charge - one ticket allows entry into three museums: the History Museum, Torture Room and Weapons Collection 
The museum presents the evolution of crafts in Transylvania and features a collection of Renaissance furniture, medical instruments, ethnographic artifacts, fine arts and a collection of clocks. 
 

The Torture Room

This small but interesting museum is housed at the foot of the Clock Tower in the same room where prisoners were tortured and confessions were extorted during the Middle Ages. Some of the amazing torture instruments and methods are on display. 
 
The Weapons Collection  
Housed on the first floor of the Vlad Dracul house, the museum features an array of medieval weapons, showcasing the development of weapons used in and around the town throughout the ages. Also on display is an oil portrait of Michael Freiherr von Melas (1731-1806). Born in Sighisoara, he became a general of the Austrian mounted troops and fought against Napoleon Bonaparte’s army at Marenga (June 14, 1880).

Festivals & Events  
Festival of Medieval Arts and Crafts (July) - Recreating a medieval atmosphere, complete with troubadour music and costume parades, street entertainers and handicraft displays, open-air concerts and medieval ceremonies, this event offers the chance to immerse yourself in the lore and legends of medieval Transylvania.