The Town of
Black Church
Black Church (in German Die Schwarze Kirche in Hungarian Fekete Templom) is an evangelical Gothic style church. Built around 1380 (probably from 1377) and originally known as the Church of St. Mary, the building was partially destroyed by the great fire of 1689, when it received its current name. The Black Church is one of the most representative monuments of Gothic architecture in Romania dating from XIV-XV.
Citadel on Straja
It was an important defense fortress in the early fifteenth century. It contains only a watchtower, which was completed in 1524 with a wooden bastion with four towers. Destroyed in 1529 by Petru Rares’s army. A quarter of a century later it was rebuilt, and stone walls and trenches were dug. A fire in 1618 brought serious damage, so that in 1625 the city was almost entirely rebuilt. In 1627 a well was dug inside – 81 m deep. In 1630 the fortress gets four bastions at the corners. Losing importance in the seventeenth century, it served as a warehouse and later as Plaies barracks. From the eighteenth century and until 1954 he served as a prison, then holding Brasov State Archives until 1975, and in 1981 after an extensive restoration it became a tourist complex with medieval specific.
Graft Bastion
Graft Bastion or Gate Bastion, as it was also called because of its shape, was built between 1515-1521 to link soldiers in the city and the White Tower. Its location, close to the midpoint located northwest of the city, made the bastion significant. It defended a path which runs along the creek of the same name, and part of the exterior walls. For this, the bastion had loopholes and oil holes that have been preserved until today.
St. Bartolomeu Church
St. Bartholomew Evangelical church is the oldest architectural monument in the city of Brasov. Its construction started in 1260. It is a simple church, without ornamentation and novel style.
The church has elements such as Gothic windows and portals, and the remnants of paintings in one of the chapels, which predates the Reformation.
Council Square
It is probably the best known and most visited place in the city, frequented by tourists and locals; a place of relaxation and meeting point between friends. It frequently houses various cultural events, decorations, outdoor concerts or thematic fairs(Craftsmen Fair, the fair of flowers, etc).
Council Square is the focal point of departure to most sights in Brasov like Black Church, White Tower, Black Tower, bastions of the old city, the Strada Sforii, Schei Gate, Ecaterina Gate, the ancient walls of the city of Tampa, etc.
First Romanian School
First Romanian School Museum is housed in the old school yard of Church St. Nicholas. First mentioned in documents in 1495, it was rebuilt in Baroque style, as shown today, and the new building dates back to 1760-1761. In the classrooms of the old school there are traces of activity from Deacon Coresti, the greatest scholar and novel typographer from the 16th century. Editor and translator of books in Romanian using dialects in southern Transylvania and northern Romanian, he founded the literary novels and also of the Romanian literary language.
White tower
Built between 1460 and 1494, even today the White Tower strikes as massive, impressive and slender by it’s architectural lines. Along its walls, the tower presents battlements, openings for resin and balconies supported by brackets carved in stone. Located 59 m from the wall of the city, the tower communicates with it by a bridge that connects the tower and Graft Bastion.
Rope Street
Rope Street (Strada Sforii) is the narrowest street in the Brasov Fortress. While some argue that it is an old street and it is be the narrowest in Europe, however, the truth is that Strada Sforii was created in the 19th century as a gang of access for firefighters.
Weaver’s Bastion
Located in the south west corner of the city, Weaver’s Bastion occupies an area of 1,616 square meters. Its walls have a thickness of 4 meters at the base and 1 meter at the top. Built on four levels with loopholes, oil holes and two guard towers, the bastion has an unique architecture. Being spared by the great fire of 1689, it has preserved its original form. The building started between 1421 and 1436, raising the first two levels.
Black Tower
It was built in 1494, on Garrison’s Hill next to the Blacksmith Bastion. The tower is located on a cliff and covers an area of 50 square meters. Initially it had a height of 11m, three tiered galleries with three rows of holes to attack and a linking system to the city. The Black Tower and the White Tower were built to prevent the enemy from taking Straja Hill from where they could more easily attack the city. Today the tower is a museum.
Catherine’s Gate
t was built in 1559 in front of the square tower, equipped with a drawbridge on chains over the moat. The walls that made up this gate was demolished in 1827. Only the outside of the tower is preserved.
Drapers Bastion
Drapers Bastion was one of the strongest defense points of the city. Located in the eastern corner of the city, designed in the shape of an ellipse, the bastion was restored in recent years. It has a wall thickness of 2 m, diameter 16 m and a height of 12.7 m. Initially, the bastion belonged to the goldsmith guild who, as is attested in a document, equipped it with 10 bombards ordered from Prague and 16 harquebuses.
Schei Gate
It is located next to Catherine’s Gate and was built between 1827 – 1828, out of stone and brick. Schei Gate has the shape of a triumphal arch with three entrances, one large main in the middle and two smaller on the lower left and right for the pedestrians. The Latin inscriptions encrusted in it inform us that the gate was built after emperor Francis I visited Brasov in 1817.
