Biertan, 2

More of the fortified 15th century church at Biertan...

Church interior

Beautifully-carved 16th century altar

Choir ceiling

Wooden pews

These a gift of the carpenters' guild; we conjectured

Exterior doors: enlarge to see the date (1524)

Remains of fresco in one of the towers

In another of the adjoining buildings, tombs
of all the bishops, from 1503 to the 1860s

Between the inner and outer walls

Frozen in time: older clock faces

Biertan: Another Saxon Town, Another Ancient Fortified Church

Sunday, from Sighisoara, we drove west to Biertan, another of the ancient Saxon towns, another UNESCO World Heritage Site, its 15th century fortified church

The valley Biertan is in goes on for miles; once heavily cultivated, for centuries; 
the terracing is monumental, but now unused

It was all abandoned largely by its German inhabitants, after  WWII; the towns 
are not quite ghost towns--but close;  nothing much has been built since the 
early 1900s

The fortified church from the town square; concentric 
walls, several towers and wards, all pretty much 15th 
and 16th century, remarkably preserved

Outer wall

Another covered staircase leads up to the
church

View of part of the town of Biertan from the ramparts

One of the great old towers

Another

Part of the church exterior

Hill Church

And, at the very top of the Hill, 176 steps up from the main square, stands what we thought was Sighisoara's most interesting sight, the Church on the Hill

Thankfully, the 176 stair-case is covered, as

are others in Sighisoara

Another wall tower by the church; now

someone's residence

The church building is of uncertain age; some say 15th,

some say earlier, maybe 13th; as part of the German

community, much of its artwork came from Germany,

including Stoss' wood-carving shop in Nuremburg;

when Saxony went Protestant in the 16th century, so did this

church

View from nave; everything is, if not

original, very old

Altar

The church was re-done in the 1700s, many of these

frescoes were white-washed or plastered over;

re-discovered and un-re-done recently; they date

from the early 1400s

More St. George and the Dragon

The large, old German cemetery adjoins the church, sort of

a boot hill; I searched for Scheraus's but found none

Draculand

Up on the hill, here's the house in which Vlad the Bad allegedly was born.

Well, this building stands on the site of

another building, in which...

Vlad Dracul was Vlad the Impaler's dad; "Dracul" simply

refers to the fact that he (the dad) was inducted into the

Order of St. George (the dragon-killer)(dracul=dragon),

most probably for killing/enslaving non-Christians way

back in the 15th century

Nice dragon sign outside; it's a restaurant now, of course;

features shish-kabob (nyuk, nyuk); paired with red wine

(nyuk)

And there's the bust of Vlad Tepes, just

outside the church

Wedding Central

In the old town, on the hill, is the main church, and on this Saturday they were running weddings through at an impressive pace, one procession nearly colliding with the next...

Dress too big to fit in front seat

Heels, cobble-stone streets, please, help her!

I was standing, as I have learned from China on, right

behind the professional photographer

Insert caption here...

And the band played on

Sighisoara

We are in Transylvania, in its Saxon Lands, settled and occupied by Germans since the 13th century or so. A few remain, and there are many traces of the culture. (Later, the Hapsburgs). And most of the non-Romanian tourists we see are from Germany. Sighisoara is a medium-sized town that goes back to the 12th century or before. The old town has been re-done many times over the centuries, but its medieval lay-out and charm are intact. We feel like we are in Rothenburg am Tauber before it was "discovered," but, quite obviously, Sighisoara has been discovered, although not yet over-run. Its chief claim to fame, other than its Citadel and fortified old town, is that it is the birthplace of Vlad Tepes, "the Impaler."

Looking up toward the fortified old town, from our campsite

At the campground Aquarius, with intermittently OK wifi; that's Vicki filling the 
fresh water tank as I take pix; half a block from the river and the CBD

So we're walking around the downtown Friday evening, exploring, walking past 
the high school, and--whoa!--it's the Mircea Eliade High School and Gynasium! 
My undergraduate honors thesis, "A Portrait of the Artist as Homo Religiosus," 
in religion (I also did one in philosophy), was an application of Eliadean notions to
James Joyce; Eliade, in the later 20th century, was the reigning paradigm in history/
theory of religions; he was Romanian; from Bucharest; quite a controversial (and

unsavory) figure, politically and otherwise, as I learned today reading up on him 
on the internet (which was, alas, not available in 1968-69)

Romanians make much of their ties to ancient Rome; 
Trajan conquered the Dacians in 106 AD, and the 
Romans stuck around for another 175 years (rather

less than the 4 and a half centuries they were in the UK); 
Romania refers to Rome, not the Roma (they say)

Next morning, we were at the Saturday market; no street food here; we are 
beginning to understand that these markets consist of goods produced by 
peasants for peasants; not tourists

Baskets, still green

Sighisoara's Citadel, an impressive gateway to the walled/
fortified upper town; 15th century or so

High noon, and the clock characters perform

And the Town Crier appears

Beautiful old streets

Three-dimensional deer representation

At the brandy cellar where I bought some Palinca--the potent 
plum brandy (100 proof)--two cute locals pose

The river and church, close to which we are camped; parking 
near churches, cathedrals, monasteries (and their bells), we 
have learned, always provides for an early start; I like to think 
of them as over-sized alarm clocks

And in English Too

"'Course, I can't say I seen London, and I never been to France, and I ain't never seen no queen in her damn undies as the fella says. But I'll tell you what, after seeing Los Angeles and thisahere story I'm about to unfold--wal, I guess I seen somethin' ever bit as stupefyin' as ya'd see in any a those other places, and in English too, so I can die with a smile on my face without feelin' like the good Lord gypped me." --The Stranger, The Big Lebowski

So we've been in rural--hyper-rural--northern Romania for a week or so, and haven't seen a McDonald's or hardly anything in English for a while. Not that we miss it, exactly. But it was a comfort, sort of, to drive south a bit more and see English again, in the usual places.