Sighisoura … a Medieval Citadel

Our first stop today was Salina Turda, possibly the only place where you can enjoy a boating lake, ferris wheel, table tennis and mini golf … 112 metres below ground!

Salinas Turda is a salt mine, slowly excavated over 240 years and made up of several huge chambers connected by a horizontal transportation tunnel 917 metres long.

We made the initial descent …

… and walked the length of the tunnel …

… spotting salt deposits on the walls.

The gallery overlooked the top of the Joseph mine and the damp walls made them glisten.

There were several pieces of equipment, but this is the crivac, a vertical extraction winch which lifted the salt out of the mine, powered by a pair of horses.

We reached the top of the Rudolf Mine and saw the rough surface of the salt ceiling glistening and the lit zig zag of the flights of stairs opposite heading downwards.

Looking down, the ferris wheel and mini golf were in view.

Reader, we took the stairs! After a photo op looking especially stylish with my jeans on under my dress … it was only 12° …

… I snapped the eerie boating lake below before returning to the surface, by lift!

We cracked on to Sighisoara, a couple of hours drive. I’d been having a little medical issue which I had tried to resolve with time and natural remedies but the time had come to go in search of antibiotics. It probably helped that we chose the emergency department of a small town because it was very quiet. Within 45 minutes, I had been triaged, seen by an English speaking doctor and filled my prescription which cost just £8. Excellent service we couldn’t fault.

We are staying at Casa Wagner for the next two nights, a small hotel facing the Citadel Square and retaining lots of period features.

We didn’t venture far that first evening, but I felt so much better in the morning.

After breakfast, we ventured down to the lower town …

… in search of a mini market to buy a couple of large bottles of water and had coffee in Umbrella Street.

As we returned, we kept catching sight of the Clock Tower.

Having been down, now it was time to climb up, taking the Students’ Stair, a covered wooden staircase, to the School on the Hill.

We actually got chatting to a lady this morning who has lived in Canada for 30 years, is back for her first trip and remembers attending the school as a child.

Here is the Church on the Hill, built in gothic style in the C13th, originally Catholic, but Lutheran after the 1547 Reform.

In all these churches we’ve seen the view to the altar …

… only just surpasses the view back to the organ.

Here is the gothic altarpiece …

… and another on display.

Restored fragments of murals from the late C15th include this rare image feintly showing God with three heads depicting father, son and Holy Spirit in the centre …

… and George and the dragon.

The Ropemakers’ Tower is home to the guardian of the cemetery, and we walked back through the graves to the town.

Definitely time for lunch, and we found a perfect people watching spot with a platter of grilled veg and a couple of beers waiting!

The afternoon was spent on a circuit of the towers, the Bootmakers’ Tower …

Which was beside the Catholic Church …

… the Furriers’ Tower …

… and the Tailors’ Tower which guards the back of the citadel.

Full circle, back to the main square and the Clock Tower, which we climbed to get a view over the town …

… and also of the seven figures representing the days of the week, with Sunday sporting the rays of the sun.

This is also the birthplace of Vlad Draculea, also known as Vlad Tepes or Vlad the Impaler, who ruled the province of Walachia in the C15th. Needless to say there is lots of Dracula memorabilia available!

Early evening, there was a short recital with organ and violin in the Monastery Church and we went in to listen, lovely actually with Erik Satie 1st Gnossienne which I recognised and also a piece by Joseph Rheinberger.