Bistrița

Bistrița was one of the seven Saxon towns of Transylvania, a prosperous market centre on the trade route towards Moldavia, and its main square keeps a long arcaded range of merchant houses, the Sugălete, with continuous vaulted passages beneath the frontages. The Evangelical church at the centre has the tallest medieval church tower in Romania at around seventy-five metres, rebuilt after a fire in 2008 destroyed the spire, and the climb gives views over the town to the mountains. Foreign visitors mostly arrive because Bram Stoker sent Jonathan Harker through here on his way to the Borgo Pass, and the town has leaned into that with a hotel named after the fictional Golden Krone; the connection is entirely literary, since Stoker never visited Romania. What the town actually offers is a quiet, well-kept Saxon centre and a good base for the Bârgău valley and the Rodna mountains.

History

Transylvanian Saxons settled the area in 1206 and called it Nösnerland, and the town grew into a trading post on several routes. It became a free royal town in 1330, and in 1353 Louis I of Hungary granted it a yearly 15-day fair on Saint Bartholomew's day and a seal with an ostrich holding a horseshoe in its beak. It gained the right to build walls in 1409, by 1465 its fortifications had 18 towers and bastions kept by the guilds, and the synagogue consecrated in 1893 is among the largest in Transylvania (Wikipedia, Bistrița).

Highlights

• The Sugălete range - a long arcade of medieval merchant houses on the square.
• The Evangelical church tower - the tallest medieval church tower in the country, climbable.
• Town walls and towers - surviving fragments of the medieval defences.
• The Dracula trade - hotels and menus playing on the novel's route.

When to go

April to October, when the tower is open and the square is at its best. Summer weekends bring local events. Winter is quiet with snow on the surrounding hills, and the mountain roads east need care.

Good to know

The Dracula element is thin and commercial, and anyone coming for it will find no historical substance behind it. The town is small and half a day covers the centre. Some of the medieval fabric is heavily restored after the 2008 fire. Facilities are ordinary.

Nearby

The Tihuța Pass climbs east; Lake Colibița and the Călimani lie southeast.

Key facts