Transylvania occupies a good part of the center of Romania, and contains some of the most interesting visits in the country. Among them is the city of Sibiu, famous for being built around the gigantic Piata Mare square. It is a huge trapezoid-shaped space that is in the center of the medieval walled town, and that brings together the noblest buildings of the city, as well as the characteristic Central European church steeples that refer to horror stories.
However, there is nothing less scary than walking through Sibiu, as it is a city with a lot of charm, which has often been associated with bohemian and intellectual environments, and which boasts that timeless musicians such as Franz List or Johann Strauss chose it for spend seasons
The Iron Bridge was the first to be built in this material in all of Romania, in 1859. It replaced the original wooden one that was in the same place at the end of Ocnei street, at the meeting point of the three main squares of the old town. . It is short and flirtatious, with railings and straps that draw some rosettes.
The locals know it as the Liars' Bridge, as it is said that it creaks when someone is not telling the truth. Which should be often, since the merchants who spoke excellences of their genre and the lovers who swore eternal fidelity settled there. But it should be with the original construction material, because now it seems more difficult.
However, at the tourist office they insist that this continues to happen, that you only have to tell a little lie to immediately hear the moan of the bridge.
The corner of the Liars' Bridge, apart from whether one has a more or less keen ear, is sensational for contemplating some of the best-preserved classic Transylvanian houses in the city. They have dormer windows with visored windows that look like eyes watching passers-by. This effect is reinforced at night, when the interior of the houses is illuminated.
In Sibiu, the churches of Biserica (from the 14th century) and of Santa Úrsula (from the 15th century) are the most outstanding religious monuments. As for civilians, the sensational Astra Museum of Traditional Folk Civilization is not to be missed. Even with its name, it is an open-air space that brings together up to 120 traditional houses, mills, sheds, haystacks... that remind us of what Romania was like until recently.
Actually, how is it still, since it is one of the countries in Europe where you still see more animal-drawn carts than tractors, and more farmers driving the fork than mechanical grass balers. In any case, it is a relaxing tour of Romanian rural life gathered in an idyllic setting around two artificial ponds.
If you are interested in alternative therapies, you should visit the Museum of the History of Pharmacy, which, in addition to the classic bottles, test tubes, pestles and scales, dedicates a part of its space to extol the figure of Samuel Hahnemann, recognized as the inventor of homeopathy at the end of the 18th century.
Very close to Sibiu, just 16 km away, is the Transfagarasan highway, a crazy design by Nicolae Ceaucescu (the tyrant who ruled Romania between 1967 and 1989) that leads to Lake Balea, in a wonderful alpine setting of the mountains of the carpathians. But the matter is in the asphalt itself, which draws curves and curves as if it were a snake, and which, seen from the top of the port, looks like a real human-sized scalextric.
The toll of 38 dead workers was paid to build the Transfagarasan highway. It is said that six million kilos of dynamite were used to move four million cubic meters of rock. But in the end the dictator got another of his pharaonic works, which some international motoring magazines do not avoid recognizing as the most beautiful in the world.
Sibiu is well connected by road and rail with Brasov, the reference city, located 150 km to the east, and is a good base for exploring the Romanian Carpathians.
