Country Article / Postcards

Transylvania

Date: 08/06/2007

It's not just vampires you'll find in Transylvania's stories. Ever wondered what became of the children of Hamelin, spirited away by the Pied Piper? This fairytale German kidnapping was the Piper's revenge after Hamelin's townsfolk reneged on a promised payment for ridding them of rats.

One folk tale says the youngsters emerged in Romania--in a Transylvanian cave. Keeping their traditions and language, they built seven towns and over 200 villages in the Carpathians' wooded valleys.

The story about Hamelin's lost children doesn't seem too fanciful in Brasov and Sighisoara. These are but two of a number of southern Transylvanian towns featuring all the medieval German essentials: stout turrets, elaborate clock-towers, fortified churches, and burghers' houses.

The reality behind Transylvania's "Saxon" heritage? Well, the region's first German incomers (mostly from the Moselle Valley, not Saxony) arrived in the 12th century at the behest of a Hungarian king. Safeguarding the mountain passes from Tartars and later the Ottoman hordes, they were granted rich farmlands and market rights.

Brasov, arguably Transylvania's liveliest town, was once called Kronstadt. Until the 17th century, only German settlers lived within its walls. Beyond the Schei Gate (which still exists) lay the Romanian quarter. The townsfolk only allowed them inside on one day each year.

Although most traditional Saxon villages managed to survive communism, Germany's reunification resulted in a mass exodus back to the old homeland. Less than 50,000 German speakers now remain in the region.

Mostly elderly, some "Saxons" cling stubbornly to a lifestyle that rightly belongs in the Middle Ages. Transport is by horse and cart. Farmers continue the backbreaking toil of cutting fields with scythes. Unpaved roads lead to settlements where houses often have no bathrooms.

For $56 a night, I'm renting an apartment in a courtyard building on Brasov's Strada Lunga. (Thankfully it has modern facilities so there's no need to scour the back garden for an earth closet.) And I'm managing to communicate in schoolgirl German with one neighbor. An elderly widow, she comes from a Saxon family.

Signs of Brasov's Saxon past are everywhere. On Strada Republicii, Taverna Sarbului still serves trencherman-sized platters of ham hocks, meaty sausages, and cabbage. Unless you can manage eight, ordering the sausages is a big mistake. To my dismay, each is a foot long. That's 96 inches of sausages…

For more easily digestible heritage, take a look inside Brasov's Black Church. The largest Gothic church between Vienna and Istanbul, its name derives from "the Great Fire of 1689" when smoke and flames blackened its walls. Inside, it's decorated with medieval Oriental carpets, brought back by German merchants.

Steenie Harvey
Roving Europe Editor, International Living