Discovering Europe
Transylvania: the promised land for tourism
Transylvania owes a great deal to the Irish author Bram Stoker who, by creating the character of Dracula in 1897, produced so many strong images of Transylvania in the popular imagination. But there is more to the region than castles shrouded in the mists of the Carpathians. The region’s architectural patrimony also includes some unique fortified churches and practically intact Saxon towns and villages. Its mountains and valleys also offer the visitor magnificent landscapes. All in all it is a region rich in potential attractions for the tourist.
Castles and valleys are very potential attractions for tourism.
© EC
Transylvania has an undoubted power of attraction for the visitor. The skies are magnificent at sunset and here, along the roadside, there are sellers of onions, blackberries and raspberries. Lower down are the thermal waters and hot springs or saline lakes. Then there are the former volcanoes and mines with their curative salts, the wooded valleys and the verdant mountain pastures. The occasional campsite in a beautiful setting – plus many barbecues, which the Romanians adore!
This part of the country is a mosaic of cultures. In one place they speak Hungarian, in another Romanian. You ask a question in German and receive an answer in English. There are no real borders, but the language changes all the time.
Along the roads, with their many roadworks, one looks at the roaring traffic. At a level crossing, you slow down. Gypsies with their Motorola phones are photographing a procession of sports cars!
The big towns are already attracting tourists. In 2007, Sibiu, also known by its German name of Hermannstadt, made the headlines when it was named European capital of culture: this jewel of a town has been renovated to acquire the status of a quality tourist destination. Less frequented, Brasov also possesses a distinctive charm of its own, nestling at the foot of the mountains. In Sighisoara, another Saxon town, Japanese tourists have already arrived, clicking away at any reference to Dracula. The car parks of the castles and citadels are full. Anyone suffering from agoraphobia would do well to avoid visiting Dracula’s supposed castle in Bran, surrounded by a perfectly kitsch market. Beautiful and well restored the castle finds it hard to cope with the mass of tourists in the peak season!
Further east in Transylvania, beyond Tirgu Mures, and into Székely country, it is like being on a Hungarian island in the middle of Romania. Rather than in Romanian and Hungarian, the signs are often only in Magyar. The ‘memorial’ parks are adorned with statues decorated in the Hungarian colours. All kinds of souvenirs are on sale, cups and T-shirts boasting of a Greater Hungary. A sensitive matter…
A wall divides a street in two in Sfantu Gheorghe
We are in Szekelföld, in the country of the Székely, where the ethnic Hungarians live in eastern Transylvania. This is a small town where Hungarian is spoken more widely than Romanian. There is little of interest to the tourist here, apart from the museum.
Outside the city centre, a residential street runs up the hill. At first it looks just like any other street. Once past the church, the houses become more modest. Fewer villas, more suburban dwellings, then apartment blocks. Nothing special.
Then suddenly the street is divided into two: lengthways. A wall, two and a half metres high, separates the left and right sides of the road. On one side it is asphalted and a few cars are parked alongside the apartment blocks. On the other, the road becomes no more than a dirt track alongside a row of modest houses. No cars. A few children are playing.
A glance is enough to identify the divided populations. On one side the ‘whites’ and on the other the ‘blacks’ or ‘tanned’ meaning the gypsies or Romanies.
Between them, a concrete wall.
