Bistrița is the town Bram Stoker put on the literary map: Jonathan Harker passes through here on his way to Dracula’s castle, stopping for dinner at what Stoker called the Golden Krone Hotel. That Dracula connection draws curious visitors, but the town stands on its own merits as one of the better-preserved medieval towns in Transylvania.
The compact old centre has a genuine Saxon-era character — Bistrița was founded by German colonists in the 12th century and was one of the seven Saxon cities of Transylvania. The main square is dominated by the Evangelical church, a Gothic structure with a 75-metre tower that you can spot from half the town. Nearby, stretches of the original fortification walls — best seen at the Coopers' Tower — and a handful of merchants’ houses from the 15th and 16th centuries, including the Sugălete arcade and Casa Argintarului, survive in reasonable shape.
It’s a pleasant, unhurried place. The surrounding Bistrița-Năsăud county is mountainous and largely undiscovered — good territory if you want to explore Romanian rural life without the crowds that descend on Sibiu or Brașov.