Piata Mare (Grand Square)

The Grand Square is the centrepiece of Sibiu's old city — a large, handsome, slightly irregular rectangle surrounded by colourful Baroque and Renaissance townhouses, their facades painted in ochre, yellow, and terracotta. The characteristic "eye" dormer windows stare out from the rooftops, giving the square its most photographed view.

The square has served as marketplace, place of execution, and festival ground across the centuries. Today it is the social heart of the city, with cafe tables in summer and the Christmas market filling the square in December. The Brukenthal National Museum occupies the finest building here — a Baroque palace that also served as the seat of the Habsburg governor of Transylvania. The square connects through a covered passage to the Small Square below.

things to do sight
A story
The Roman Catholic Church on the corner of Piata Mare was built in the 1720s by the Jesuits, who were briefly expelled from the city by the dominant Lutheran Saxons — the only Catholic church allowed inside the walls for centuries. When Emperor Franz Joseph visited Sibiu in 1852, the Saxons reluctantly allowed the church to ring its bells for the first time publicly.