Clock Tower of Sighișoara
Turnul cu Ceas din Sighișoara
Interesting facts
- The three craftsmen who rebuilt the roof after the fire worked from March to September 1677 and were paid 650 florins.
- The Baroque roof rises about 34 metres, while the stone and brick tower beneath it measures about 30 metres to the eaves.
- Each of the four corner turrets is 12.5 metres tall, and the gilded sphere crowning the roof is about one metre across.
- Two parallel vaulted passages from the 13th century pierce the base, once closed by solid oak doors and iron grilles whose traces remain.
- The tower holds two clock mechanisms, an older one of wood and a later one of metal; an electric motor was fitted in 1964.
- The Sunday figure is a woman, because the sun is feminine in German, the language of the town's Saxon founders.
- The Saturn figure stands on a wooden leg for reasons nobody knows, and he once held a child he was about to swallow, as in the myth of Cronus.
- A figure in the niche facing the lower town, holding what were probably a whip and an axe, is thought to represent the executioner as a warning to wrongdoers.
- Fire watchers on the gallery could send crews to the nearest of the town's nine water sources, precious in a hilltop citadel where wells had to reach about 35 metres.
- In its first form the gate tower probably looked much like the Tailors' Tower that still stands opposite it across the citadel.
Why it is worth it
The Clock Tower of Sighișoara guards the main gate of the upper citadel of Sighișoara, a small medieval fortified town in Transylvania preserved with rare completeness and listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. It is about 64 metres tall and visible from almost everywhere in town. It began in the late 13th century as a simple gate tower of sandstone and river stone, with walls more than two metres thick at the base; two brick storeys, a balcony and a new roof were added in the 16th century, and after the great fire of 1676 three travelling craftsmen — Veit Gruber from Tyrol, Philip Bong of Salzburg and a carpenter recorded only as Valentinus "the foreigner" — built the present Baroque roof in a single season in 1677. That roof, with four corner turrets and a gilded sphere at the peak, is taller than the stone tower beneath it; the turrets signalled that the town had the right to pass and carry out death sentences.
Unlike the town's other towers, each of which belonged to a guild, the Clock Tower was public property. It housed the town council until 1656, the town band played from it on feast days, and its gallery was the fire lookout. The two clock faces, one toward the upper town and one toward the lower, are 2.3 metres across, and beside each is a niche of carved and painted wooden figures. On the citadel side stand Peace with her olive branch, a drummer, blindfolded Justice with her sword and Righteousness with her scales, and above them Day and Night, who once marked the craftsmen's twelve-hour working day.
On the side facing the lower town, a rotating platform holds seven figures for the days of the week — each also a planet, an ancient god and a metal: Sunday as the Sun and gold, Monday as Diana and silver, Tuesday as Mars and iron, and so on to Saturn with his lead. At midnight the platform turns to bring the next day's figure into the window. The tower has housed the town's History Museum since 1898, and the climb through its floors ends on the wooden gallery below the roof, the best viewpoint over the roofs of the citadel and the lower town.
Getting there
The tower stands at the entrance to the upper citadel in the centre of Sighișoara. The town is on the main railway line between Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca, with direct trains from Brașov, and the citadel is a walk uphill from the station. The nearest airport is Târgu Mureș Transilvania (TGM), about 40 km away.
Plan your visit
We have no confirmed visit data yet. Once it is confirmed, this block also carries the date it was checked.
Nearby places
- Biertan fortified church 23.0 km · fortified-church
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
The Clock Tower of Sighișoara in Mureș County, Transylvania, Romania, is the main entry point to the walled upper city, opposite the Tailors' Tower. With its 64 meter height, the tower is visible from almost every corner of the city. Its purpose was to defend the main gate of the upper city. It also served as the town hall until 1656. It is considered to be one of the most important clock towers in Transylvania. It is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List No 902: Historic Centre of Sighişoara.
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