Council Square (Piața Sfatului)

About Council Square (Piața Sfatului)

At a glance: Monuments and historic sites in Brașov, Brașov County. Opening hours: daily open 24 hours. Ticket: Free. The visit takes 1 – 1½ hours. Information verified on 8 October 2026.

Piața Sfatului, Council Square, is the heart of Brașov's walled town: a broad, pedestrianised rectangle closed in on every side by colourful façades, with the Council House in the middle and wooded Tâmpa rising above the rooftops. For centuries this was the town's marketplace. From 1520 the square held the right to host fairs, and Saxon, Hungarian and Romanian merchants, along with traders from the Orient and from Italy, set out their goods on pitches assigned by the magistrate. The names of the old rows of stalls have survived: the Wheat Market, the Flower Row, the Flax Row and the Boot Row.

The Council House, the old town hall, began as a watchtower. A deed of 23 December 1420 allowed the Burzenland district to build a room for trials and council meetings above the furriers' guild's selling vault. The tower was raised between 1521 and 1528 and became the "Trumpeters' Tower", after the watchmen who sounded the hours on a trumpet. The building has been through a lot: in 1608 lightning set the tower on fire, and the blaze was put out by pouring wine, vinegar and milk on it; in 1662 an earthquake brought down two thirds of the tower, and the great fire of 1689 consumed part of the town archive. Its present form comes largely from the Baroque rebuilding of 1770–1778, when the façade was given Brașov's coat of arms; the pyramid roof with black and yellow tiles dates from 1909–1910. The town administration moved out in 1876, a decision to demolish the building in 1902 was withdrawn after protests from the townspeople, and it has been a museum since 1950.

Along the east side stretches the Merchants' House, or Hirscher House, a long trading hall with arcades and a steep tiled roof, built in the mid-16th century by Apollonia Hirscher, widow of the town judge Lukas Hirscher, to give merchants a covered place to sell. The other sides are lined with burghers' houses rebuilt in Baroque style after the fire of 1689, the Orthodox Church of the Dormition, set back in a courtyard, and the Mureșianu House, now a memorial museum.

Good to know before you go

Getting there

By car: Piața Sfatului is in the middle of Brașov's historic centre and is pedestrianised, so you leave the car in a car park around the old town and walk. Bucharest is ~170 km away (~3 hours on the A3 to Ploiești, then the DN1 through the Prahova Valley and Predeal), Sibiu ~145 km (~2 hours 30 minutes on the DN1, via Făgăraș) and Cluj-Napoca ~270 km (~4 hours 30 minutes, via Târgu Mureș and Sighișoara). Brașov-Ghimbav airport is ~15 km away.

Public transport: Brașov railway station is ~3 km from the centre; bus 4 takes you to the Livada Poștei stop, from where it is a ~5-minute walk down to the square. The square is the starting point for the rest of the centre: the Black Church is right beside it and Strada Republicii starts from the north corner.

Where to park

You cannot park in the square or on the streets inside the old town walls. Paid spaces are on the boulevards around the historic centre and in the public car parks nearby, paid by SMS or app; they fill up quickly at weekends and on festival days. From anywhere around the old town, the square is a 5–10 minute walk.

Fees & discounts

The square is free. County History Museum in the Council House: adults 12 lei, pensioners 5 lei, pre-school children, pupils and students 2 lei; people with disabilities go free. Taking photos and filming for personal use in the museum is free. Guided tour for groups of up to 30 people, by appointment: 150 lei in Romanian, 200 lei in English or French. The museum is also included in the Brașov Visit Ticket, the combined ticket for several museums in town.

Rules

Guided museum tours must be booked at least 48 hours ahead, by e-mail to [email protected], giving the date, time, type of group and preferred language. Professional photography and commercial filming in the museum need prior approval and are charged.

Facilities

Cafés, restaurants and terraces on every side of the square · benches · pedestrianised, stone-paved square