The citadel of Sighișoara and its Clock Tower

If you find yourself visiting Transylvania and end up in the Mureș County, more specifically in Sighișoara, I strongly recommend you to visit the old town, because it is one of the most beautiful still standing medieval fortresses in Romania. But how to find the citadel of Sighișoara? You only have to look for its Clock Tower and its beauty, which can be seen** **from every corner of the city.

A short history of the Clock Tower

The Clock Tower of Sighișoara is the city’s symbol and its main tourist attraction. It was built in the 14th century as a gate tower to guard the entrance into the citadel. At first, it only consisted of the ground floor and two floors. In the 16th century two floors were added, a balcony and a roof. We don’t know how the shape of the roof was built because in 1676 there was a fire which destroyed it. After the fire, the roof was rebuilt into the five turrets baroque masterpiece with bulbs that one can admire today. It has a golden scope on the top of which there is a meteorological pole ending in a rooster figurine rotating in the wind. The roof alone is 34 meters high and the whole tower 64 meters.

The Clock

The most impressive feature of the tower is the clock, hence its name - The Clock Tower, built in Switzerland and installed in 1648. There are two clock faces. One on the facade, facing the lower city, is decorated with the wooden figurines about 0,80 meters in height, made by the sculptor Johann Kirschel. There are seven of them in total, each representing a day of a week. Every day the clock's mechanism rotates one of the figurines on the outside. The other facade, facing the citadel, also has a clock face and is decorated with the figurines symbolizing the Peace Goddess, Justice and Righteousness and Day and Night.

The legend of the Clock Tower

It is said that, after a lot of hard work completing the tower, the townspeople felt that their building was missing something. They concluded that they need to put something valuable on top of the roof. They have heard of a giant who was said to make golden scopes , so they sent for him. The giant made the scope for the townspeople and placed it at the top of the roof, but then he warned them that the scope would stay there only until a man tall enough to reach it will come and take it away. When that day comes, the townspeople will have to give the scope to this man and let him leave the town. Even today the people who live in Sighișoara, are still afraid that one day someone will come and touch the scope, and that they will have to give it to him.

I’m confident that you now know how to find the citadel of Sighișoara from every corner of the city and this is because its Clock Tower is always guiding you.