#Fortified Church in Cisnădie

[lemmeg0]

Exploring the villages of Romania, not far from Sibiu ( Marginimea Sibiului)

Marginimea Sibiului which means “ Borders of Sibiu” is an area which is made up of 18 villages. Set at the foothills of the Cindrel Mountains, the villages are known for preserving the ethnological, cultural, architectural, and historical heritage of Romania. Even now, people wear traditional Romanian costumes, and their occupation is shepherding. They take the sheep to the mountains in summer and bring them back to the village in winter. Our guide, Dumitru had suggested us to visit the Corvin Castle in Hunedoara, but I was craving for some village lifestyle. 

I wanted to take a picture with her, but she wasn’t able to hear me. :(

Dumitru from Sibiu Transylvania Tour guide was our guide. He was also our Airbnb host. He took us to the Balea Lake first, which is amazing, by the way, and then he drove us to the villages. Obviously, we did not cover all the 18 villages as it was impossible, but whatever we were able to visit gave us a good idea about the Romanian villages and their people. 

We first started with the Fortified Church in Cisnădie. Even though Cisnadie is not one of the 18 villages, it is close by, and should definitely be in your list.

The fortified church in Cisnădie

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. 

The fortification

In order to go inside the church, you have to pay 7 Lei and make sure you ring the bell so that someone can come and open the church door for you. The most interesting thing for me to climb up the tower. 

Do it at your own risk, but once done, you would appreciate the architecture of a Saxon village. You can even take a bus from sibiu to go to Cisnădie. It takes about 25 minutes. 

The stairs to go to the tower. Scary as shit but fun.

The view from the tower

Inside the church

We made another detour and Dumitru took us to the Castelul de Lut Valea Zanelor, located in Porumbacu de Sus. It is an interesting castle newly built and not entirely finished. 

Castelul de Lut Valea Zanelor

It is made only from clay and straw and its roof is made of wood. It kind of reminded me of the movie of the Shire from the Lord of the Rings movie. It is beautiful and I would like to come back once it’s complete. The entrance fee is only 5 Lei.

From Castelul de Lut Valea Zanelor,, we went to Rășinari, which is one of the wealthiest 18 villages. The main occupations of the people here are sheep farming and local carpentry. While passing through this village, we saw a lot of sheep. It has an ethnographic museum, which we did not visit, but we did see a painted Orthodox church built in 1752. 

We then visited Gura Râului village, famous for its dam. The Gura Raului Dam is 72 meters high, possesses a crowning of 330 meters in length and is located in Cindrel Mountains at 600 meters altitude. 

The Gura Raului Dam

Fishing at this dam is legal if you have a permit. Our guide told us it has a good amount of trouts. Only if i knew how to fish.

Dumitru next took us to Sibiel, which is famous for Painting on glass. This has been a tradition for 200 years in this village. It has a Painted Icons Museum, which is the largest existing exposition of icons on glass in Transylvania. We did not go inside the museum as the outside was too pleasant.

Village of Sibiel

Even now there are wells for each house. We pulled out water from the well and drank. We saw children playing outside. So nice to see kids not playing with their tablets. 

Cute little well, one for each house

Loot at this cutie

We were super hungry and since it was off season, nothing really was open. Our guide made some calls to his other travel guide buddies and luckily they told him one of the restaurants is open. We had soup and pancakes. They both were delicious and cheap.