In the twelfth century the Hungarian crown invited German settlers into Transylvania to farm the land and hold the frontier. They were called Saxons, though most came from the Rhine and Moselle, and they stayed for eight hundred years.
What they built is unlike anything else in Europe. Faced with Ottoman and Tatar raids across an exposed plain, each village fortified its church rather than building a castle for a lord. Curtain walls went up around the nave, towers were added at the corners, and the interior of the wall was lined with storerooms — one per family, where bacon, grain and valuables were kept, with the keys held by the households. When raiders came the village moved inside and waited.
Around 150 of these fortified churches survive and seven villages are UNESCO-listed. Viscri is the best known, partly because King Charles bought a house there in 2006 and has funded conservation across the region since.
The Saxons themselves are almost gone. Emigration to Germany accelerated under Ceaușescu — who reportedly sold exit permits to West Germany per head — and after 1989 the remaining population left in weeks. Villages that were German-speaking for eight centuries emptied in a single year.
About Dracula
Bran Castle is marketed relentlessly as Dracula's castle. Vlad III, the fifteenth-century Wallachian prince whose patronymic Stoker borrowed, probably never held it and may have passed it once. Bram Stoker never visited Romania and worked from library research in Whitby and London.
The castle is a genuine fourteenth-century fortress on a spectacular rock and worth seeing on its own merits. The vampire business is an entirely twentieth-century commercial invention and the guides will tell you so if asked.
The region
Brașov is the main city — a Saxon foundation with a huge Gothic church blackened by a 1689 fire, a medieval square and mountains rising directly behind it.
Sibiu was the Saxon capital, with three linked squares and houses whose roof vents look like eyes.
Sighișoara is a walled hill town, inhabited, with a clock tower and covered stair.
The Piatra Craiului and Făgăraș mountains hold Europe's largest brown bear population outside Russia, and the Transfăgărășan road crosses at over 2,000 metres in summer.
An honest note on the hotel count: the four and five star inventory here is thin and concentrated in Brașov and Sibiu. Six clear the bar and the rest of the region is guest houses.
The six below are grouped that way.
Brașov and Poiana Brașov
The city and the ski slope above it.
Teleferic Grand Hotel occupies a position at Poiana Brașov, the ski resort above the city, with a spa, a pool and the slopes outside.
Teleferic Grand Hotel
Poiana Brașov · 5★ · $$$
A spa and pool with the ski slopes outside
Check availabilityKronwell Brașov Hotel sits in Brașov in a contemporary building with a rooftop, a spa and the old town a short walk away.
Kronwell Brașov Hotel
Brașov · 4★ · $$
A rooftop and spa a short walk from the old town
Check availabilityHotel Bella Muzica occupies a restored building on the Brașov main square with a small room count and a good restaurant.
Hotel Bella Muzica
Brașov main square · 4★ · $$
A restored building on the square with few rooms
Check availabilitySibiu
The old Saxon capital.
Hilton Sibiu occupies a tower in Sibiu with a spa, a pool and views over the linked squares.
Golden Tulip Ana Tower Sibiu sits near the Sibiu old town with reliable rooms and a pool.
Golden Tulip Ana Tower Sibiu
Near Sibiu old town · 4★ · $$
Reliable rooms and a pool at good value
Check availabilityPredeal
Between the two, in the mountains.
Hotel Belvedere Predeal occupies a position at Predeal with a spa, a pool and the Bucegi mountains around it.
Hotel Belvedere Predeal
Predeal · 4★ · $$
A mountain spa between Brașov and Bucharest
Check availabilityWhat we have left off
The restored Saxon houses in Viscri, Mălâncrav and the other villages are excluded, and several are run as guest houses by conservation foundations. Staying in one is the point of coming to this region and they are guest houses rather than hotels.
What to do
See three fortified churches rather than one. Viscri, Biertan and Prejmer between them show the full range, and Prejmer's storeroom ring with its 270-odd cells is the most complete.
Walk or drive the Transfăgărășan in summer, which crosses the range at 2,042 metres and closes from roughly October to June.
Go to Sighișoara and climb the clock tower, and note that around 3,000 people still live inside the citadel walls.
Look for bears responsibly, through a licensed hide operation rather than the roadside feeding that has become a problem near Brașov.
Eat sarmale, mămăligă and the Saxon-influenced baking, and drink the țuică, which is stronger than it looks.
Practical notes
Bucharest is about two and a half hours from Brașov by road or train; Sibiu and Cluj have their own airports with European connections.
May, June and September are ideal. Summer is warm and the mountain roads are open. Winter has skiing at Poiana Brașov and Predeal and the villages under snow are remarkable.
A car is close to essential for the fortified churches.
Every hotel bookable in Transylvania
What is a fortified church?
A village church wrapped in curtain walls and towers, with storerooms inside the wall for each family, built against Ottoman and Tatar raids. Around 150 survive.
Is Bran really Dracula's castle?
No. Vlad III probably never held it and Stoker never visited Romania. It is a genuine fourteenth-century fortress regardless.
Why are there so few hotels?
The four and five star inventory here is thin and concentrated in Brașov and Sibiu. The villages are guest house country.
How many nights?
Four. Two in Brașov and two around Sibiu and the churches.