Tailors' Tower (Students' Tower)

About Tailors' Tower (Students' Tower)

The Tailors' Tower, today better known as the Students' Tower, is part of Sebeș's medieval fortifications, in the south-eastern corner of the old citadel. It was built towards the end of the 14th century, and its upper levels were added in the following centuries. Its original name comes from the tailors' guild, which maintained and defended it, as in many other Transylvanian towns where each tower had a guild responsible for it.

Its second name dates from 1438, when Ottoman troops besieged and took the town. According to the historical tradition, a group of young men barricaded themselves in the tower to avoid capture, and the attackers set it on fire. Among the few survivors was a pupil of about 16 from the town's Dominican school, who was sold as a slave at Edirne and in Anatolia. Years later he reached Rome as Georgius de Hungaria and wrote a treatise on Turkish customs, which was widely read and reprinted long afterwards.

The tower has a rectangular plan, a ground floor and four levels, walls of river stone bound with mortar about a metre thick, narrow arrow slits and a pyramidal tile roof. It belongs to the town's fortification ensemble (14th–17th centuries), which is on the list of historic monuments of Alba County.

Information verified on 13 October 2026.

Good to know before you go

Getting there

By car: Sebeș is on the DN1 / E68, ~15 km from Alba Iulia, ~60 km from Sibiu and ~100 km from Deva; the A1 motorway passes close by. The tower is on Strada Traian, at the edge of the old centre, a few minutes' walk from the main square.

Public transport: Sebeș has a railway station on the Sibiu–Vințu de Jos–Alba Iulia line, with regional and InterRegio trains; from the station it is a walk or a short taxi ride to the centre.

Where to park

Parking is on the streets around the centre, usually paid in the central zone. From the centre it is a few minutes' walk to the tower.

Rules

The tower stands in an area with private properties and a fence around it: it is visited from the outside, from the street. There are no usual restrictions on photography from outside.