Sibiu is a small, charming city that belongs to the main centers of historical Transylvania. Its Old Town is centered around three markets and the monumental Evangelical cathedral. The city has a rich cultural offer with around 100 events a year, with an international theater festival at the fore. In 2007, it was the European Capital of Culture.
The Old Town of Sibiu is surrounded by high defensive walls with towers. A large part of them has survived to this day. The main part of the development is concentrated around three markets. The largest of them, the Great Market Square (Piața Mare), is surrounded by tenement houses covered with tiles. In their roofs there are characteristic semicircular projections with windows called "city eyes".
In the main square there is also a baroque church and the Palace of the Governor of Transylvania, Bruckenthal. Currently, it houses an art museum with a valuable collection of European paintings amassed by the governor. You can go to the second, smaller square through the gate under the town hall tower. There is a nice view of the center from its top.
The Little Square (Piața Mică) is a place formerly inhabited by merchants. The medieval cloth hall, which today houses the ASTRA ethnographic museum, is a reminder of this. Part of it is an open-air museum of rural industry with buildings from all over Romania. In the Small Square you can also see the first iron bridge in Transylvania, called the Liar's Bridge.
The last smallest square is Huet next to the Evangelical Cathedral. It is the most famous building in the city, with a huge belfry tower overlooking the city and, in good weather, the nearby Southern Carpathians. There is also a monumental Orthodox cathedral in the area, and a little lower than an old Romanian city with narrow, winding streets.
Sibiu is a good base for exploring the Southern Carpathians. Nearby are the Fagaras Mountains with the wonderful Transfagaras Route, which reaches over 2,000 m above sea level at its highest point, as well as the Sibin Mountains (Cindrel). In summer, it is a great area for mountain hiking, and in winter, the Păltiniș ski resort operates here.
