Tourist Guide Brasov

1. Tourist Info Center

To visit Brasov I recommend starting at the Tourist Info Center Poarta Schei.

The address is 1 Prundului Street. It is open Monday through Friday from 9 - 17.

2. The first Romanian school

We start at the Tourist Info Center in Prundului Street, near the Schei Gate. I invite you to a circuit per pedes, a circuit that I'm sure is representative for a tour of Brasov's sights and on top of that it's very nice. I don't want to skip the only slightly eccentric situated objective in the proposed route and I will start with a 600 m walk on Prundului street to Piata Unirii. In the square is located the Statue of the Unknown Soldier, but also another "soul" landmark - the First Romanian School located in the courtyard of St. Nicholas Orthodox Church.

3. Schei Gate

We turn down the same street until we reach the Info Center. In front of us we have the Schei Gate, through which hundreds of cars and pedestrians pass every day. The Schei Gate was erected in 1827, after the demolition of the circular Puppas Tower. The Schei Gate has three arches: two small ones, for pedestrians, and a large central one for vehicles. It is being renovated and several wider sights in the citadel.

4. Catherine's Gate

It is probably the most beautiful gate of the city. It is also called the South Gate. It was built in the 16th century and facilitated access to the medieval citadel. From the original construction only the outer tower, on the frontispiece of which stands the coat of arms of the city. The fortified ensemble of this gate forms a 70-meter-long quadrangle, with another 50 meters outside the walls. Catherine's Gate is flanked on one side by a small park and on the other by a courtyard with a garden. You can enter through the first one and exit through the second one in Baritiu street, right next to the parking lot I mentioned at the beginning. Cross the street and follow the fortress walls on a pedestrian street again suggestively named .... After the Walls. A small street along which flows the Cheu River.

After a few dozens of steps a signpost leads us to cross the ford over a bridge and up a path to the left towards ....

5. Black Tower

The ascent is not difficult, it is a wide path through the forest that after 5, 10 minutes maximum, depending on the pace of each person, brings you near the Black Tower. Being higher we have a panoramic view over the city. Beautiful! Especially as it is slowly getting dark. The Black Tower is one of the four observation towers of the Brasov Citadel built as an independent fortification. The name of this small tower comes from a thunderbolt that blackened it in 1559. The Black Tower has a height of 11 meters and a square cross-section. It was built in the 15th century. It is of the donjon type, with shooting holes and a pointed top. It was restored in 1995 when a glass roof was added after it had partially collapsed 4 years earlier. You think we're done climbing? We're not.

If we still want to capture the panorama in pictures we have to continue on the same path to the point called Belvedere located near ...

6. White Tower

The White Tower has a semicircular shape, it is a bastion and has shooting holes all around. It was in the care of the guilds of the pew-weavers and the guilds of the aramars. It was erected in the 15th century. Restoration to its present form was completed in 2005. The view of the Tampa Mountain, the Council Square, the Black Church, the city is special from this point, it is also the highest point reached on the tour I described.

From here you go down the stairs to ...

7. Graft Bastion

The Bastion can be visited from Tuesday through Sunday from 9 am to 5 pm, last entrance at 4 pm. Fee 5 lei and extra for photo. Because of the evening time we arrived, we couldn't visit it. We actually went back down the street Dupa Ziduri. At the base of the Graft Bastion flows the parapet I mentioned, and next to it there is a metal door to an underworld gallery, probably leading to the White Tower. We continued on the picturesque Dupa Ziduri street, downhill, past a Hungarian college until we reached the statue of Gheorghe Baritiu and the Gheorghe Baritiu Library, in Bd. Eroilor, where it is the end of the lines of several means of public transportation in Brasov, including line 20 that goes up to Poiana Brasov resort. On the right we have Casa Baiulescu, Iacob Muresianu's monument and Transilvania University.

Then we follow the Muresenilor street for about 600 meters until we reach the Pietei Sfatului but we go a little further until the Black Church.

8. Black Church

The Black Church is indisputably a symbol of Brasov, It is also the patriarchal church of the Evangelical Church of Romania. The architecture and grandeur of this church, its value, make it perhaps the most representative Gothic monument in our country. Its name derives from the great fire of 1689 which we have already mentioned. The church was then partially destroyed. On one of the buttresses of the Black Church, on the side facing Piata Sfatului and with the city coat of arms carved underneath it, the Virgin Mary, patron saint of Brasov, gives us her blessing.

Summer opening hours are Tuesday - Saturday 10am - 7pm, Sundays 12pm - 7pm, and in winter from October to April it closes 3 hours earlier. Monday closed anyway.

On one side of the Black Church is the Johannes Honterus High School, the German high school in Brasov, and next to the church is his bust. The humanist Johannes Honterus founded in 1533 the first printing house in Brasov and 11 years later the first secondary school. The pedestrian space between the Black Church and the Johannes Honterus High School is called Honterus Court.

Back to ....

9. Council Square

Piata Sfatului has become a symbol of Brasov thanks to the organization of the Golden Stag International Light Music Festival. What names have graced this stage! The Christmas tree is also set up here in the last years and the Christmas Fair is organized here, reason to visit this place in December. We admire the architecture of the buildings of the Council Square. The mark of the Saxons is everywhere. In the center of the square a fountain was built and there are many benches where you can sit and admire or rest. The area is exclusively for pedestrians, it is wide and offers a view of the Tampa Mountain with its relay and the huge letters of the city's name under the mountain's mantle, illuminated at night. Terraces, restaurants and kiosks dot the area. It's a place for strolling, it's the place where just about everyone who visits Brasov arrives.

In the Council Square is the Council House, an unmistakable building, also a symbol of the Transylvanian municipality. The Casa Sfatului houses the County History Museum. Also in the Council Square are the Museum of Urban Civilization of Brasov, the Church of the Assumption and the Muresenilor House.

From Piata Sfatului we head towards Tâmpa. We can turn right on Coresi street, then left on Balcescu street, right on Weiss street, left on Castelului street and right again a few meters and we arrive in another pedestrian area, called Promenada de sub Tampa. From here start several hiking trails to the Tâmpa Peak.

10. The Postăvarilor Bastion

We are near the fortress wall. The first tower that comes our way is the imposing Bastion of the Postavarilors. It overlooks the fortified complex to the southeast. The thick walls were crenellated. It was administered by the goldsmiths.

The Timber Tower is next. There are also playgrounds with playgrounds for the very young, for the bigger ones and basketball courts, but mostly a fabric of paved paths.

We walk a little further and reach the Hunters' Tower. Here we are near the stairs going up to the bottom station of the Tampa Cable Car. The stairs intersect the alleys under the woods and the boardwalk and descend into town on Suisul Castle Street to Castle Street.

We then meet in our path the Bastion of the Ropes. It has the shape of a hexagon inscribed in a semicircle. It suffered two fires and was rebuilt. This was once the site of the guild of the robbers.

11. Tower of Arts

Several towers and bastions are highlighted. We pass by the Tower of the Arts or the Bastion of the Artists. This was once a powder tower. It is a rectangular-shaped tower and this is where powder was stored in medieval times. Today it hosts art exhibitions. You can climb up a staircase to the wall, from where you can see the view of the evening-lit oasis, highlighting the Black Church.

12. Weavers' Bastion

Unlike the situation encountered at the Black Church, although I arrived here outside the posted visiting hours 10 - 18, I found the gate open and the possibility to visit the bastion, and I felt welcome. And here is closed on Monday, so don't choose this day of the week for the tour proposed by me. I paid 7 lei entrance. For photo there is extra charge.

We enter under a walled vault into a courtyard where we encounter a surprising sight. I was not expecting to find a wooden building built on 3 levels, looking like a small fortification. We visit the courtyard where we find the emblem of the weavers' guild. There is also an interior space that is visited where in a room is presented a huge model of Brasov. It is one of the towers / bastions of the fortress that was defended and maintained by the weavers guild. It was built in two stages between 1421 - 1436 and 1570 - 1573. In the first phase the first two levels of the three battle galleries were built. The first level has large firing ports for bombards and arquebus. The third level, built later, has small, circular firing ports. The Guard Corps operated in two watchtowers. It is a hexagonal construction of more than 1600 square meters surrounded by thick walls of more than 4 meters in places.

After the pleasant visit to the Bastion of the Weavers, we go down the same George Cosbuc street. Right next to the bastion there is the Sports Museum and a sports field where I was able to do my daily jog. Perpendicular to Cosbuc Street on the right is Cerbului Street, which leads us to another attraction of the city.

13. Sforii Street

Sforii Street connects Poarta Schei Street to Cerbului Street and we will even cross it in this direction. It's a pedestrian access. It's not that cars are not allowed here, they wouldn't even fit, in fact it's famous for its width, which barely allows two people to pass each other. It's a place to pose with open arms, which is only as open as the width of the street will allow. The length of the street is 83 meters and the width between 1 and 1.4 meters! The street was built with the purpose of creating a corridor for fire units.

14. Beith Israel Synagogue

We exit the street Poarta Schei and after a few meters to the left we reach the Beith Israel Synagogue. And a little further ahead is Poarta Schei and the Tourist Info Center and thus we have completed the loop that I have presented.

15. Hiking and running

If we return to the Promenade de sous Tâmpa, here options for walking or jogging in the forest open up! At the point where the boardwalk by the walls meets Tampa road there are 2 signposts for 3 hiking trails to Tampa Peak. One is unmarked and goes through the Curmatura lasting 1 and a quarter hours, another on the Gabony's Steps Trail which lasts 1 and three quarters hours, yellow triangle marker (a bit heavier) and the last one is called the Serpentine Trail lasting 1 and a half hours on red triangle. Another route branches further to the right and reaches Vf. Tampa via Saua Tampa - marked by a blue stripe - and the easiest of them all, lasting 1 hour and a quarter.

Hikes

Here are two hiking suggestions on my running route:

Brasov - Saua Tampei - Vf. Tampa

Vf. Tampa - Gabony's Steps - Brasov