Explore Brașov

Council Square is the main square of Brașov's old town, where markets have been held since the 14th century. In its centre stands the former Council House of 1420, now the county history museum, and the square is lined with 18th- and 19th-century merchants' houses, many of them listed monuments, with the Black Church just behind.

The Black Tower is a watchtower of Brașov's fortifications, built around 1460 on a rock outside the western city wall to keep attackers on the Warthe hill away from the walls. It takes its name from a lightning strike in 1559 that burned its roof and blackened the walls; restored in the 1990s with a glass top, it overlooks the old town.

Catherine's Gate was built by the tailors' guild in 1559 to replace a gate destroyed by a flood, and its tower is the only original medieval city gate of Brașov still standing. Four corner turrets around the spire marked the town's right to pass death sentences, and for centuries it was the entrance that Romanians living in Șchei had to use.

Șchei Gate is a city gate in the walls of Brașov, built in 1827–1828 in classical style, like a triumphal arch, to carry the growing traffic towards the Șchei district. It has a large central arch for vehicles and two smaller openings for pedestrians, with Latin inscriptions recalling Emperor Francis I's visit in 1817; Catherine's Gate stands beside it.

Tâmpa is a forested limestone mountain rising almost 400 metres above Brașov's old town to a summit of about 960 metres, and most of it is a nature reserve. A cable car climbs from the foot of the mountain to the crest in a few minutes, and footpaths, including a serpentine trail cut in 1837, lead to viewpoints over the city and the Burzenland plain.

St. Nicholas Church is a Romanian Orthodox church in Brașov's Șchei district, rebuilt in stone between 1495 and 1519 on the site of a wooden church recorded in 1399. Wallachian and Moldavian princes paid for its porch, bell tower and painted interior; side chapels and a clock tower were added in the 18th century, and the First Romanian School stands in its courtyard.