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Sighisoara is a perfectly preserved medieval town. The old part and citadel are situated on a hill top around which the ‘new town’ has developed. The city walls remain in tact and the sloping cobbled streets are lined with 16th century houses and ancient churches.
It was here that Vlad Tepes was born - his birthplace is now a restaurant. The town was settled by the Romans and known as Castrum Sex by 1280. Saxon colonists took over in the 12th century and by 1989 some 3000 Saxons left here. The present name is derived from ‘sasi’ a nickname the Romanians gave the Saxon settlers.
The Saxon community has plummeted to under 500 following the return to Germany of many people of German origin after 1990 and the fall of the Soviet Union.
There were attempts to exploit ‘Dracula Tourism’ in view of the link with Vlad the Impaler but this proved abortive as funds for the restoration of the old buildings were conditional upon them not being subject to any external alteration. The followers of the Dracula cult have therefore been directed elsewhere.
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