Sighisoara is one of the best-preserved medieval citadels in Europe, a UNESCO World Heritage Site perched on a hill in the centre of Transylvania. It is best known as the birthplace of Vlad Tepes — the historical figure behind the Dracula legend — but the town is worth visiting for far better reasons than vampire tourism.
The citadel is entered through the 60-metre Clock Tower, which dates from the 14th century and still has working wooden figures that turn on the hour. Inside the tower is a small museum, and from the gallery at the top you get a panoramic view over the town and the surrounding hills. Just opposite the tower is the house where Vlad Tepes was born, now a restaurant serving traditional Romanian fare.
Walking uphill from the clock tower along narrow streets lined with painted medieval houses, you reach the Scholars' Stairs — a covered wooden staircase of 175 steps — that leads to the Church on the Hill, a 14th-century Gothic church, and a quiet German cemetery on the hilltop. Outside the walls, the Breite Oak Tree Reserve preserves an ancient landscape of 800-year-old oaks that once stretched across the whole of Saxon Transylvania. Each summer the citadel hosts a medieval festival, with costumed performers, open-air plays, and concerts — well worth timing a visit around if you are in Romania in late July.