Valea Viilor fortified church

Wednesday

Today we moved on to Sibiu, stopping on the way at Valea Viilor fortified church. Built in 1263 in gothic style, it was enlarged and fortified in the 15th and 16th centuries by adding a range of 26-foot-tall and five-foot- wide walls. My blip is taken from the bell tower, showing a part of the encircling wall and some of the village houses.
We arrived in Sibiu in the rain around lunchtime, and having dropped our stuff off at the hotel, went into town. Sibiu was the largest and wealthiest of the seven walled citadels built in the 12th century by German settlers known as Transylvanian Saxons. The riches amassed by its guilds paid for the construction of both impressive buildings and the fortifications required to protect them. The upper town is centered around two main squares, the Great Square, home to the Catholic Cathedral and Brukenthal Palace and the Little Square, linked to the a Great Square by a passageway under the Council Tower. We visited the cathedral and climbed the tower to admire the views over the town , which on a better day would have included the snow-capped Fagaras mountains as a backdrop, but today unfortunately were mainly shrouded in cloud. Several steep streets and stairways lead from the upper to the lower town. One of them passes beneath the Bridge of Lies. Built in 1859 this was the first wrought iron bridge in Romania. Legend has it that the name derived from the merchants' fiery disputes which flared up around it and the passionate but transitory vows of young lovers who often met here. We then explored some of the lower town, including the very impressive Orthodox cathedral, and finished up at a great traditional Romanian restaurant for dinner - great food in a lovely setting.