Wednesday, 3 June 2026

Transylvania and Romania

 We just got back from a fabulous break in Romania, in particular the province of Transylvania.

I thought I might share the photos that Wargamers might find useful so here is a bit of a photo dump with the odd bit of narrative.

First of all Bram Castle.

Mrs C very disappointed as she expected a huge gothic palace out of the Dracula movies but for me it was a lovely fortress.

Vlad himself adorned one room, I was much more impressed with the reconstruction of the fabric of the Castle.
My impression is that almost all the forts and Castle had plastered and painted walls rather than exposed stonework.


This view might be more familiar from the outside.
Viscri, a "Saxon" village or small town with its own fortified Church.
My uploading is a bit haywire so two shot of Fagaras fort, newly renovated have crept into Viscris.
Back to Viscris.
Fagaras with a big old moat, draw bridge and scarp.
And Viscri again.

Most of the Transylvanian churches are fortified to a greater or lesser extent, this one is particularly nice. Each neighbour hood being responsible for its own tower mirroring the larger cities where each workers guild was responsible for a tower or gateway.

Sighisoura, the Old town with its walls and Germanic buildings around a town square was lovely, the feeling that you could be almost anywhere in Germany, Austria or Czech republic was strong.


Each tower was manned and managed by one of the local city guilds, so the Drapers may have one tower and the copper workers another.








Folk Museum outside Sibiu, this was a number of groups of rural village buildings across a couple of miles of countryside and gives a really nice idea of rural buildings in Eastern Europe for those historical battlefield.
















So their you go a whistle stop tour of Romanian architecture, hopefully of use to someone. Beautiful country and well worth a visit.

Thanks for stopping by.


15 comments:

  1. Very nice OB - I have never been any further east than Munich, although my wife "did" Scandinavia by train and also Kontiki tours of the USSR, Poland and the DDR in the mid 80's. The architecture is certainly very "different" looking!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think for anyone doing Rennaisance Poland, WW2 or WW1 Eastern Front there will be some useful stuff to be taken from the images.

      Delete
  2. Some fab photos Roger, looks a great place to visit, there's a lot of history in that area.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Very interesting Roger, some inspiration to be taken from all those lovely buildings.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Really enjoyed the photos. Incidentally how tenable would such a trip be for a non driver?
    Alan Tradgardland

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Completely we didnt drive at all, this was booked essentially as a coach holiday picked up and dropped off at the airport, we ended up in a car with the guide as there were only 3 travellers rather than the expected 12-16. Untravelled Paths was the company but also check out some of the smaller local companies.

      Delete
  5. There are buildings I've never seen anything quite like. Why do so many firms make Fantasy buildings when there's more inspiration in real life. Perhaps real life is less believable and more stretching of the imagination.
    Grateful thanks
    Stephen

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pleasure Stephen, I think there are buildings you can find out there to match some of this just not always as easy to find as we might like.

      Delete
  6. Cracking photos mate. Cheers, Chris

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wonderful photos Roger. Beaut to view in their own right, but also really useful for many actions of the Long Turkish War and its precursors.
    Best wishes, James

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks James, hopefully inspiration from the Turkish wars right through to WW2.

      Delete
  8. Splendid pictures Roger…
    There are so many buildings I would like to build….

    All the best. Aly

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. cheers Aly hopefully someone finds them useful.

      Delete