Rockstadt

---

While having the main headquarters in the camping at Rasnov for the Rockstadt Extreme Fest we also went exploring the fortified evangelical churches in Transylvania.

On Thursday we saw Cincsor - Cincu - Dealu Frumos - Agnita - Alma Vii - Richis - Copsa Mare - Biertan - Apold - Barcut - Soars. We entered only Cincu, Richis, Biertan and Apold because the others were closed.

On Friday we visited the Rasnov citadel, walked around the town and spent more time at the concert.

On Saturday we saw Feldioara - Rotbav - Rupea Fortress - Viscri - Bunesti - Cloasterf - Saschiz - Sighisoara - Darjiu - Daia - Drauseni. In Feldioara and Saschiz we only stopped at the churches and did not visit the citadels because Feldioara is undergoing restoration and Saschiz is in ruins. We still saw them from afar. We only entered Viscri, Saschiz and Darjiu. There was a wedding in Darjiu and we got to see some of the traditions there.

On Sunday we went back to Bucharest, through the Rucar-Bran pass, where it heavily rained.

A few details about the fortified evangelical churches: most of them are based on romanic churches from the XII - XIII centuries which were then modified with gothic elements in the XIV - XV centuries after the Reformation. The fortifications were added later on, between 1400 and 1600, and so pretty much every village had its own citadel to withstand attacks. In the late XVIII century baroque altars and organs were brought to the churches. Most of them are still being used by the local population.

Rasnov and Rupea were built in the XIV century to include older Dacian fortresses aka "davas". Both of them have been restored recently and are very nice to visit.

What we saw is beautiful, interesting, but quite unknown. There's very little publicity around the fortified evangelical churches and most of them can't even be entered. Also, some of the roads were quite bad.

This mini-vacation had it all: views, history and very nice evenings.

---