Fortresses and fortifications

A 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.

The 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.

The 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.

A 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.

The 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.

One of the largest Saxon fortified churches: a Gothic church on a cross-shaped plan, ringed by an oval wall with over 270 refuge rooms reached by timber galleries.

A Late Gothic Saxon church beside the DN13, with a bell tower modelled on Sighișoara's Clock Tower; on the hill above the village stand the walls of a 14th-century peasant fortress.

The Saxon church in a vineyard valley near Mediaș, with its choir turned into a defence tower, an almost intact oval wall and a wood-and-iron portcullis that has survived for centuries.

A small white church on the hill above the village, grown from a 12th-century Romanesque chapel and ringed by walls, towers and grain galleries, in a Saxon village that has survived almost intact.

A Dacian fortress on Cetățuia hill, at the gateway to the Orăștie Mountains: earth ramparts, a stone wall built in the Hellenistic manner, tower houses and temples, a UNESCO site.

The ruins of a Dacian fortress on the rocky summit of Piatra Cetății, above the DN66, which guarded the southern approach to Sarmizegetusa Regia; a UNESCO site, reached only on foot by a steep climb.

The ruins of a Dacian fortress on a wooded hill above the Sebeș valley: limestone walls in the murus dacicus technique and the base of a tower house, the only Dacian UNESCO site in Alba County.

One of the strongest Dacian fortresses in the Orăștie Mountains: murus dacicus walls, six towers and a dog-leg entrance, on a wooded hill above Costești, a UNESCO site.

A Dacian fortress on top of a rocky hill above Luncani, with an ancient paved road of stone steps and tower ruins hidden in the forest; a UNESCO site, far from the crowds.

The northernmost bastion of Roman Dacia: the fort with its reconstructed gates, the paved imperial road, the civil town and the amphitheatre, on the hills at Moigrad in Sălaj.