Transylvania unveiled: a 5 day journey through Romania's enchanted dreamland

A bit of context

Transylvania is a historical region located in the center-west of what is currently Romania. It is bordered to the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range and historically extended westward to the Apuseni Mountains.

Nowadays, the name Transylvania sometimes applies not only to the historical region itself but also to the Romanian parts of the Crișana and Maramureș regions; it may also include the Romanian part of the Banate.

Transylvania became part of the Kingdom of Hungary in 1002, and it belonged to the Lands of the Hungarian Crown until 1920. By the 12th Century, German Saxons arrived in the region after the Tatar raids. The Tatars were a Turkic-speaking people who were conquered by the Mongols and folded into the Mongolian army as the Mongols attacked Europe - becaming the origin of the Hungarian nation.

The Saxons were offered free land and tax incentives by Bela I of Hungary, provided they help protect the realm from the Tatar-Mongolian raids. The Saxons built seven fortress towns known as the Siebenbürgen (“seven cities”), which was the historical German name for Transylvania. These seven cities were:

- Nösen/Bistritz (Bistrița)

- Hermannstadt (Sibiu)

- Klausenburg (Cluj-Napoca)