The fortresses of Romania span two millennia: from the Dacian fortifications of the Orăștie Mountains and the Greek colonies on the Black Sea shore, to the princely seats of the rulers of Moldavia and Wallachia and the walled towns and fortified churches built by the Transylvanian Saxons. Most are concentrated in southern Transylvania, where almost every Saxon village had its own defensive wall, but also in Moldavia, along the line of Stephen the Great's fortresses. Some are hilltop ruins overlooking the plain; others have been restored and house museums.
Alba Carolina Fortress is the largest bastion fortress in the country, while Sighișoara Citadel is a still-inhabited medieval town on the UNESCO World Heritage list. Sarmizegetusa Regia takes you back to the time of the Dacians, the Suceava Princely Fortress to medieval Moldavia, and Histria Citadel to ancient Dobruja.
Top 20A medieval fortress built by the people of Brașov on a rock in the Bran Pass, later Queen Marie's summer residence and known around the world as “Dracula's Castle”.
Top 20A Saxon-built, still-inhabited medieval walled town on a hill above the Târnava Mare, with guild towers and the famous Clock Tower; a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999.
Top 20The Saxon church on the hill in the middle of the village, guarded by three rings of walls and towers; inside, Romania's largest polyptych altarpiece and a door with a lock from 1515.
Top 20Romania's largest bastion fortress, a seven-pointed star built by the Habsburgs in 1715–1738 at Alba Iulia; baroque gates, cathedrals, the Union Hall and a changing of the guard, all with free access.
Top 20A moated, bastioned fortress in the centre of Făgăraș, seat of the princes of Transylvania in the 17th century and now home to the Făgăraș Land Museum.
Top 20The capital of the Dacian kingdom, hidden in the beech forests of the Orăștie Mountains: the walls of Decebalus's fortress, the paved road and the sacred area with andesite and limestone sanctuaries, a UNESCO site.
Top 100A 13th-century count's residence, bought by the Saxon villagers in 1430 and turned into a peasant fortress: a Romanesque keep, two rings of walls and a chapel, in a valley near Sebeș.
Top 100A pentagonal bastion fortress built by the princes of Transylvania in the 16th–17th centuries: five bastions, a princely palace housing the Oradea City Museum, and courtyards you can walk into freely.
Top 100A medieval peasant fortress on a rocky hill above Râșnov, looking out to the Bucegi and Piatra Craiului mountains; the upper enclosure is under restoration, but the Fortress Garden and Báthory Tower are open.
Top 100The stone stronghold of the princes of Moldavia in Suceava, built by Peter Mușat and strengthened by Stephen the Great, with a bridge over the moat, walls over 10 m high and a display of medieval arms and treasure.
Top 100The only Székely and Unitarian church in the UNESCO fortified-church site: a Gothic church with 1419 frescoes of the legend of Saint Ladislaus, whose fortress villagers still use to store their bacon.
Top 100A 13th-century hilltop fortress on a volcanic hill above Deva, with three enclosures restored by 2024 and wide views over the Mureș valley.
Top 100The ruins of a 14th-century fortress, probably built by the Genoese on a limestone hill above lakes Razim and Babadag, with one of the widest views in Dobruja.
Top 100The ruins of the oldest city on Romanian soil, a Greek colony founded by Miletus in the 7th century BC on the shore of Lake Sinoe, with the site museum alongside.
Top 100A medieval Moldavian fortress on a rocky spur above Târgu Neamț, built by the Mușatin princes and strengthened by Stephen the Great, which held out against Mehmed II's siege in 1476.
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