Orăștie Medieval Citadel

The medieval fortress of Orăștie dates from the 12th century, from the arrival of the first Saxon colonists, and served as the seat of local Saxon community leaders (“graefs”). Over the centuries it went through numerous sieges, fires and rebuildings: it was plundered by the Tatars in the mid-13th century and devastated by the Ottomans in the early 15th century and again in the mid-17th century.

Restored between autumn 2021 and September 2024 with EU funding, the fortress reopened its gates in the very year Orăștie marked 800 years since its first documentary mention. Inside stands a nearly 1,000-year-old stone rotunda — one of the oldest structures of its kind in Romania —, two historic churches (Reformed and Evangelical) and a museum dedicated to Dacian civilisation, set up in a 19th-century building that once served as the town's hospital.