Brukenthal National Museum

The History Museum is accommodated by the Altemberger-Pempfflinger House, located on 2nd Mitropoliei Street, headquarters of the City Hall of Sibiu during 1545 and 1948. The ten wings of the building, plus a guard tower, represent the most impressive civil gothic architecture ensemble of Romania and even of South-Eastern Europe. The construction was built by the team led by the stonemason Andreas Lapicida, at the end of the 15th century, upon the guidance of Thomas Altemberger. The oldest part is the tower-house, its construction being initiated at the end of the 13th century. The exhibitions that can be seen here are structured as follows:  - Evolution of human communities of the South of Transylvania, displaying the day to day life during the Palaeolithic, offering an image of life in caves, cottages, households, Roman villa, medieval house;  - Glass in Transylvania and Guilds of Sibiu, depicting human activities from wind processing to specialized production of the guilds;  - Roman lapidary and the Magistrate of Sibiu, evoking the social status and dignity of the leader;  - Weapons and armours, indicating other essential aspects of human existence in these places, such as war or the ritual aspect of religion;  - Thesaurus, containing liturgical silverware pieces.  The touristic exhibition circuit ends with the presentation of the national emancipation movement of the Southern Transylvania, displaying events during the 17th and the 20th centuries. 

The Goldsmiths Gangway starts under the tower of the house in the Small Square, at no. 24, located in the Upper Town, descending in steps towards the Goldsmiths Square, located in the Lower Town. The name of the gangway is explained by the fact that the goldsmiths used to have their shops in this area. Having preserved its medieval aspect since 1567, the picturesque Goldsmiths Gangway can be considered one of the most romantic places in Sibiu. At the upper end of the gangway there is a defensive tower on the precincts of two fortifications of Sibiu – the Tower of the Goldsmiths Gate – preserved since the 13th century.

The Soldisch Bastion, also named the Mercenaries Bastion, is located in the North-West corner of the citadel, on Bastionului Street, built during 1622-1627. Although it has a small area, Soldisch Bastion is one of the most interesting fortifications of the compound that used to provide security to the Upper Town. It is the last of the series of five Italian style bastions, built in order to modernize the defensive system. The bastion was made of brick and filled with soil for the purpose of providing a good protection against gunfire. Its walls are 2 meters thick and have a height of maximum 10 meters. On the inside, the ground organization and two levels of defense are still preserved and on the Southern side there are embrasures for medium size weapons as well as a door that used to allow the passage of troupes to the outside. The blazon of Sibiu is inserted in the bastion wall on the South-Easter side. At the end of the 18th century, the Alderman of the Saxons, Michael von Brukenthal, set up a fashionable garden at the time, with a fountain and orangery, with an artificial ruin and a hill made of pieces of cliff. With the occasion of the military festivities, on the platform of the bastion, cannons were brought to pour in a broadside.

The Stairs Gangway is one of the places in Sibiu with the best preserved medieval air. Some historians assume that the Stairs Gangway was allegedly built around the 13th century, but most of the specialists are of the opinion that only at the beginning of the 14th century Mayor Markus Pempfflinger required the construction of the gangway. Also known as the “Wall with needles”, the Stairs Gangway was built of stone and brick, connecting the Upper Town with the Lower Town via two lines of stairs and arcades that surrounded the walls of the citadel around the Evangelical Church. The Gangway ends in the upper part, at the crossing with Odobescu Street, with the Gate Tower and with the Old City Hall, today the History Museum within the Brukenthal National Museum. The building situated on the Southern side of the Stars Gangway houses the oldest restaurant of Romania, where – it is told that – even Michael the Brave dined after the battle of Șelimbăr. In order to arrive at the Stairs Gangway one must pass beneath the arch of the Stairs Tower.

The ASTRA Transylvanian Civilization Museum, founded in 1993, is the treasurer of the patrimony values inherited from the “Society” Museum (founded in 1905, by the Transylvanian Society for the Culture and Literature of the Romanian People and dissolved, according to a communistic dictate, in 1950). The museum has a patrimony of 9.002 items registered under the emblem “A”, divided into six collections: 6.523 embroideries, 1.025 costume-textiles, 567 objects of worship, 539 wood, bone, iron, 330 ceramic and 18 dolls. The collections increased, in the final half of the century, having today 30.138 items, of which: 8.740 costume-textiles, 9.884 embroideries, 3.960 ceramic, 4.147 objects of worship, 3.407 wood, bone, iron. Over the years, these patrimony values were presented at various exhibitions organized in the country and abroad, until the closing of the folk art Exhibition of Brukenthal Palace, in 1990. ASTRA Transylvanian Civilization Museum is imagined as a multi-ethnic and interdisciplinary museum and its purpose is to define the multicultural aspect of a European region with a multi-secular pluri-ethnical cohabitation, as well as the emphasis of these European community and ethnic particular values. ASTRA Transylvanian Civilization Museum initiated and applied the modern concept of „museum vivum”, with the purpose of saving, preserving and capitalizing the folk culture. Thus, under the phrase Live Human Treasures, the museum organizes the Fair of Folk Creators of Romania, the National Olympics „Traditional artistic crafts”, the National Festival of Traditions, the National Festival of Folk Heritage and Customs, the National Toys Fair, the Potters Fair (in collaboration with the National Centre for the Preservation and Promotion of Traditional Cultures) etc. At the same time, ASTRA Transylvanian Civilization Museum organizes temporary exhibitions in the halls of „Hermes House” and „House of Arts”.

The best known monument of Sibiu, the Council Tower used to be an entry gate to the city through the second fortification belt. Its name comes from the fact that it was located nearby the City Hall of Sibiu. The Council Tower, built during 1224-1241, is located in the Small Square, at no. 1. The Council Tower is a building with seven stories successively phased out, having their facades marked by narrow openings shaped as ramparts. The edifice is supported by high buttresses which phase out step-by-step, on the sides towards the Large Square and the Small Square. The buttresses on the Southern side of the tower are inserted with two embossed lions, which were presumed to be part of the tower’s original structure, but which appear to be sculpted during the Renaissance (final third of the 16th century). At the ground floor there are two ample arched passages that connect the Small and the Large Squares. The access to the inside of the tower is done through a small sized door, located in the Small Square. From here the narrow spiral stairs lead to the upper floors. On the 4th floor there is the horologe mechanism with dials on all four sides of the tower. Over the years, the tower was given different uses: gate tower, grain storehouse, fire tower (fire observation point), jail, natural science museum (around the mid of the 19th century). At the moment, the tower is used for various exhibitions and as belvedere point, on the superior level of the tower the visitor being able to see the entire Sibiu city and the crests of Făgăraș Mountains.

The natural history museum was founded in 1849, at the initiative of the Natural Sciences Transylvanian Society, society constituted with the purpose of spreading its discoveries to the community and educating the younger generation about the knowledge and preservation of nature. The headquarters of the Natural Sciences Transylvanian Society was built according to the project of the Architect C.W. Friedrich Maetz of Cluj, the festive inauguration taking place on May 25th, 1895. The building was built in the late Italian Renaissance style, having three stories (underground, ground floor and first floor). The collections of the museum integrate approximately 1.100.000 pieces from different domains such as geology, palaeontology, botany and zoology. We can see here: the herbarium of J. Lerchenfeld (17th century); the herbarium of M. Fuss (1834-1882); the ornithological collection of F. W. Stetter (1853), including indigenous and exotic birds; the ethnographic collection of Palestine, Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia of the vice-consul Franz Binder; the Ackner minerals collection; the entomological collection of Dr. Eugen Worell (1957), including insects from Europe, Africa, America and Asia; the butterflies collection of Weindel (1965); the insects collection of H. Hannenheim (1964); the Breckner paleontological collection (1955), mainly including shark teeth of the tertiary collected from Porceşti region (Turnu Roşu); the Nyárádi botany collection (1980); the mineral collection of Dr. E. Bielz (1953); Kimakowicz malacology collection. Since December 21st, 2007, the Natural History Museum of Sibiu displays the most modern natural history exhibition of Romania, the new configuration conferring a special importance to the diorama exhibition, the pieces being displayed in order to reproduce the habitat of each animal within an ecosystem. The garden was set up as a relaxation area for the visitors, but also as an area where one can see common and rare species of plants, such as trees and ornamental scrubs.

The Brukenthal Palace is a symbol of Sibiu City, being the first museum of Romania, open to visitors since 1817. Its existence is due to prominent personalities of Transylvania’s history – Baron Samuel von Brukenthal – Governor of this province in the second half of the 18th century (1777-1787). The palace was built after the pattern of Vienna’s palaces in the late baroque style. Currently, the palace building and the collections of Baron Samuel von Brukenthal represent the core of Brukenthal National Museum. On the first floor of the museum, the visitor is introduced into the atmosphere of the 18th century of the reception Rooms, where the original silk tapestry, painted canvas or oriental motifs decorated board, tile stoves brought from Vienna and gilded lime-wood sculpted medallions (called supraporte) are still preserved. The following exhibitions can be visited: Medieval Art in Transylvania, Anatolian Carpets, as well as the segment with German and Austrian Paintings of the European painting collection. On the second floor of the museum we find other two important segments of the mentioned collection: Flemish and Dutch Painting and Italian Painting. In 2007 the special exhibition entitled Masterpieces of the Brukenthal collection was inaugurated, which includes 23 works that were recovered after being confiscated in 1948 and stolen in 1968. The patios of the Brukenthal Palace were open to visitation in 2008, accommodating the exhibitions of the Plates Study and Cartography Study, as well as the Gessoes Exhibition, Transylvanian stone sculpture during the 13th and 19th centuries and Gothic: neo-gothic experience vs. the illuminist pattern.

Built on the location of a gate tower of the second fortification precincts, the Bridge of Lies that joins the two sectors of the Small Square, thus enabling the connection between the Lower Town and the Upper Town, is, undoubtedly, the place in Sibiu with the richest legend.  Featuring a true symbol of the city, the Bridge of Lies was rebuilt in 1859, at the factory of Fredericus Hutte, being the first one in Romania and the second one in Europe to be made of cast iron, with fretwork decorations and having two big circles at the ends decorated with the blazon of Sibiu. Until the construction of this bridge, the access between the two sectors of the square used to be done beneath a conglomerate of buildings, demolished in 1851. The wall supporting the stairs includes a square shaped stone framework, vestige of a medieval building. The Bridge of Lies is considered a romantic place where lovers used to meet, even though at least four legends surround this location... The most known legend has it that the bridge has ears and an unimaginably great power, therefore, while hearing each lie, it starts groaning at every joint and crashes, bringing the liar with his/her feet on the ground. According to another legend, in the Small Square of Sibiu there used to be several fairs, and, after arriving home, some shoppers would realize they were cheated. They would return to the square and would get to grips with the lying merchants and, in the crowd’s explosion of laughter, would throw them off the bridge. Thus, while lodging again in Sibiu the merchants were afraid to cheat the locals a second time. A legend has it that couples of lovers used to walk on the bridge. The young couples would make vows of eternal love and the girls claimed to be virgins. However, after the wedding night, some of the girls would be caught lying. They were dragged to the bridge and thrown off over hand rail. In Sibiu there used to live many cadets who studied at the Military Academy. They would make a date with the local young ladies on the bridge, they were making many promises and afterwards the girls were left waiting uselessly for the men who would forget about them and their love vows.