Tourist attractions in Sibiu and its surroundings
The most important sights you can visit in Sibiu.
Museums
Brukenthal Museum
Brukenthal Palace and the collections put together by Baron Samuel von Brukenthal represent the nucleus of the present Brukenthal National Museum.
Since the baron and his wife had a daughter as the only child (who died at the early age of four) his testamentary dispositions stipulated that, on the death of the last heir in the male line of succession, the entire inheritance was to be placed in the custody of the Evangelical Church of Sibiu while the palace presenting his collections to be open for the public, event that happened in the year 1817.
Astra Museum
Situated in the natural reservation of Dumbrava Sibiului, on the road to Rasinari village and to
Paltinis ski resort, 8 kilometers away from the city centre, the Open Air Museum spreads across a
96 ha area of which an area of 40 ha is covered by the permanent exhibition which is the largest
open air ethnographic exhibition in Europe.
History Museum
The building known today as the Altemberger House, after the name of its first proprietor, was purchased in 1545 by the Magistrate of the city, becoming the location of the Town Hall for 400 years (until 1948).
It comprises 10 architectural units, to which a defensive tower was added, conjointly structuring one of the most impressive ensembles of civic Gothic architecture in Romania and even in the South Eastern Europe.
Museum of Natural History
There was a time when the Transylvanian naturalism, as well as the European one, experienced a spectacular grow and by that time the Transylvanian Society for Natural Sciences (Siebenbürghische Verein für Naturwissenschaften zu Hermannstadt) was established (1849) as the result of German-Saxon intellectuals’ initiative. They aimed for an organization fit to accommodate the sharing of their passion for the nature and to serve the dissemination of their discoveries in order to educate the younger generation in the spirit of knowledge about nature and of the preservation of natural trust.
Museum of Hunting Arms and Trophies
The Museum of Hunting is named after one of the important personalities of the city of Sibiu in the late 19th and the early 20th centuries: Colonel August von Spiess, the Keeper of the Royal Hunting under the King Ferdinand I of Romania.
Franz Binder's Universal Ethnography Museum
Inaugurated at 18 May 1993, it is the first and the only museum in Romania until now with the purpose to present the public various aspects belonging to the world peoples` culture, civilization and art based on its own collections and through collaborations. Inside the `ASTRA` ethno-museum Complex, the `Franz Binder` museum introduces moreover the perspective of the non-European as a knowing alternative and a comparative explaining of the `difference` as an element of cultural identity.
Museum of Ethnography and Saxon Folk Art EMIL SIGERUS
The `EMIL SIGERUS` Museum of Ethnography and Saxon Folk Art, founded on the 1 of July, 1997, is located in Sibiu, 21 Small Square in a historical building known under the name `The House of Arts`. The permanent exhibition of the museum, „Transylvanian Terracotta Tiles –XV-XIX centuries” is hosted in 12 Huet Square.
Churches and Cathedrals
Orthodox Cathedral "Sfânta Treime"
The idea of raising an Orthodox cathedral in the city of residence of the Metropolitan Church of Sibiu first belonged to the great Metropolitan Andrei Saguna, who in a circular sent to the eparchy around Christmas 1857 after the autumn of the same year obtained the approval of the Emperor Franz Joseph I, urged priests and believers to help lift the cathedral.
The Evangelical Church C.A.
The Evangelical Church is one of the most impressive Gothic buildings in Transylvania. It was built in the 14th century on the site of an old church dating back to the 12th century.
The building is dominated by the seven-level tower with the four turrets on the corners, a sign that the city had the right to be sentenced to death (in Latin and Gladi, literally “the right of the sword”).
Catholic Church
The Roman-Catholic parish church “St. Trinity” was built by the Jesuits between 1726-1733 in the spirit of the early Viennese Baroque.
It was sanctified on 13 September 1733 by Transylvanian Bishop Gregor von Sorger.
The tower that is detached from the ship was finished in 1738 and has four tall levels and a dome.
The Tower of the Roman Catholic Church measures 47 meters and houses three massive bells and a clock with two dials.
The three bells were first mounted in the 6th century. XIX.
The Church of the Ursulins
The first church was built on this place by the Dominican monks in 1474 in the Gothic style.
It functioned as a Dominican monastery until 1543 when, at the occasion of the religious reform that led to the passage of a large part of the Saxon population to the Lutheran religion, the place of worship was in the possession of the Lutherans.
In 1728, after the liberation of Transylvania from the sphere of Ottoman influence and the establishment of the Austrian administration, the complex of edifices of the former Dominican monastery was attributed to the Ursuline monks and populated by a group of nuns brought from Pojon.
The Reformed Church (Calvine)
Church – hall with undecorated semicircular apse and tower in the west.
Edifice with narrow façade, simple portal, stone rectangular frame, surmounted by an inscribed panel dated 1786, and above it a triangular fronton with a timetable rosette.
The church has a characteristic Baroque plan, has a single hall with a semicircular apse, and on the main western façade the tower is embedded in the ship’s body.
Asylum Church
It is a church hall built entirely of brick with a square choir and a polygonal sanctuary, flanked south by a room, and north of two rooms on two levels. In 1760, the church was renovated and received the appearance of today.
The church ship is divided into a central ship and two collateral, through four arcades supported by the pilgrims. The central ship is covered with a cylindrical vault with crossed penetrations.
Collateral is also covered with penetrated vaults.
The polygonal apse is separated from the rest of the ship by a powerful double arc (which resolves the difference in height between the apse and the rest of the church).
Synagogue
In 1898 the Jewish community in Sibiu obtained the necessary sums by the efforts of Josef Schwartz, the president of the community, who instructed architect Franz Szallay to build the edifice of the synagogue.
The synagogue consists of a single rectangular plan building. The façade is neogothic, but in the upper part there is a frieze of neoromanian triforos.
Tourist attractions in the surroundings of Sibiu
Cisnădie Fortified Church
Initially protected by the patron Saint Walpurga, the church was built in the 12th – 13th century in a Romanesque style. The fortification surrounding it was erected between 1460-1530 and made up of two concentric curtain walls strengthened with towers, bastions and ditches which could be filled with water. On the south-east side of the church there is a defence tower encompassing a circular chapel.
The Fortified Church of Cristian
At mid-15th century, the former Romanesque basilica from Cristian was almost entirely redecorated and turned into a gothic hall church with three naves and a belfry.
The authorities wanted to build a very solid church to resist to the passing of time and to the merciless attacks and also to respond to the modern architecture of those times. Thus, the very famous stone-mason Andreas Lapicida, known in that region of Transylvania for his craftsmanship was commissioned to perform the works.
The fortified church from Cisnadioara
In the second half of the 12th century they built a Romanesque basilica. In the early 13th century, the basilica became the property of King Andrew II and later on it was donated to the Cistercian Abbey in Cârţa.
Rășinari
12 km from Sibiu on the road to Păltiniş, connected to Sibiu through a tram line that crosses the Dumbrava forest, reveals the view of Rasinariul, the largest marginal village situated at the confluence of the Steaza River with the Sibişel stream at an altitude of 573m.
Păltiniş resort
Regardless of the season, the Păltiniş mountain resort offers mountain lovers countless experiences. Only 32 km away from Sibiu, Păltiniş is located at the heart of the Cindrel Mountains surrounded by dense, fresh forests, spectacular mountain peaks and vast pastures.
Transfăgărășan - Bâlea
In the middle of one of the most beautiful mountain region of the Romanian Carpathians, the Bâlea Lake Mountain Chalet is situated next to a glacial lake. Directly accessible off the legendary Transfăgărășan mountain road, at an altitude of 2034 meters above sea level, it offers accommodations in accordance to international standards. All the rooms feature wood furniture, showers, toilets and television sets, offering a breathtaking view over Bâlea Lake, that has a surface area of 4.6 ha or over the surrounding mountain ranges.
Ocna Sibiului
Also called “Transylvanian Seaside”, the Ocna Sibiului permanent resort is 17 km away. away from Sibiu and has numerous saline lakes, some of them declared monuments of nature.
Set in the northern part of the Depression of Sibiu, at an altitude of 408 meters, in a region surrounded by hills covered with oak forests, Ocna Sibiului has deep roots in history.
Summer residence of Baron Brukenthal - Avrig
The former summer residence of Samuel von Brukenthal has awakened from its slumber in 2011. For nearly a decade hardly anyone was interested in this historic treasure. The palace as well as the park and its buildings belong to the most important monuments from the time of the Transylvanian Baroque. In Southern Transylvania, it is indeed the only surviving baroque ensemble at all.
