Ze Germans!

A fascinating part of Transylvanian history is the multicultural composition of the state  (long before multiculturalism ever became a catchphrase) and the length of the country's ethnic diversity.

In the 1200s, Transylvania was under Hungarian influence. Pre-1200 is a very vague period of time, when rather scattered sheepfolds of Vlachs/Blachs (ie, Romanians) lived in remote areas, while the countryside remained vulnerable and scarred by the Huns, the Mongols, and pretty much any other horde than roamed the Continent. 

The Magyars were formerly one of these roving hordes, but they eventually settled in modern day Hungary and modern day Transylvania. They came in two phases, the first, the Szecklers, and the second, the Hungarians. By the mid 1200s, the Transylvanian plains were under siege by yet another tribe, the Tatars. 

The Tatars ancestors form a significant portion of the modern residents of Russia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, etc. Apparently, the movement of this general group of people is so diverse and scatted, they have different categories: the Tatars of the Balkan-ish region, the Caucasus, and the Siberians. In any case, in the 1200s, they were a pagan tribe invading the Transylvanian plains.

The Hungarians could not handle this onslaught and they invited various Germanic populations into the Transylvanian lands. The general term 'Saxons' is used for these Germans. They were actually brought in in phases and from different parts of (modern day) Germany or (the Hapsburg empire of) Austria from the 12th century until the 13th or 14th century. They formed seven main cities, known as the Siebenburgen. These cities are known in Romanian as Cluj, Sibiu, Brasov, Bistrita, Sighisoara, Medias, and Sebes. 

These cities were very well organized, neat defensive holds where the Germans lived, practiced their trades, and defended themselves in an orderly fashion against the Tatars and later, in 1285, the Mongols.

The trades were organized into guilds and each guild was responsible for the maintenance and defense of a tower on the fortified city wall. 

I recently visited two of the Siebenburgen, Sighisoara and Bistrita. 

Here is the tragically demolished Saxon church of Bistrita. Just last year the roof was set on fire. The word on the street is 'gypsies' set it on fire. I asked specifically, how, and apparently some kids were playing with matches. Eeemm... I'm going to have to call BS on that one, as irritated as I got with the unsupervised, demonic little gypsy children running around Bistrita, I don't know how some kiddies playing with matches could have set the whole massive roof on fire so quickly they couldn't put it out. Probably some big $$$ getting passed around the fix it and I'm sure someone's profiting off of it. Which is tragic. 
Every Saxon city has one huge church like this. The Saxons were formerly Catholic, but converted to Lutheranism in the 1400s. They converted thinking that the constant tribal invasions were punishment for the sins of the Catholic church. 
Here I am on the "Scholar's Steps" in Sighisoara. It's a covered staircase leading to the very old Saxon school on the hill of Sighisoara. The earliest recorded graduates of the school were enrolled at the University of Vienna in 1522, so this school is likely much older. Just past the school on the hill in the "Church on the Hill" of Sighisoara, a gorgeous Gothic masterpiece.
Here I am on top of the famous clock tower of Sighisoara. It was the only tower not run by a guild, rather, by the city council. 
This Gothic church is right next to the clock tower and is a Dominican Church. It is documented since the 1190s, when the Dominican order received a Papal letter of approval (err, that term could be wrong, I don't know what precisely you would term this letter...anyways, it's from the papal offices, it's dated, and it acknowledges an order of Catholic monks living there since pre-1200).
This is the walk up to the Clock tower, probably the most famous of the towers, the largest, and the only one you can climb in. The routes up to the old medieval city are all old, cobblestone and pass through gates.
"Zu unsere Toten Helden" "To our dead heroes" A Saxon tombstone/monument on the walk up to the Church on the Hill. The Church on the Hill also has a gorgeous, sprawling cemetery with Saxon, Hungarian, and some Romanian graves. Some of the tombstones were tear-jerkers:

"If only a mother's tears could bring you back" or a short poem to a daughter "Your life was short/ the pain is immense/ your death, daughter,/breaks our hearts"

There is also a plague to the Saxons who died fighting in World War I and World War II. They fought, of course, on the side of the Nazis in World War II, and a chilling note on the bottom of the memorial remembers those Saxons shipped to Russia after WW II was over and the Communists had taken over. 

The Saxon culture in Romania is fascinating; and apparently they maintained a unique dialect of German similar to medieval German. They had special crafts, they built beautiful religious edifices, they protected the Christian countryside of Transylvania. Unfortunately, most of the Saxons fled under the worst of the Communist years, when Ceasescu and his fascist nationalistic plan allowed them to buy their way out of the country.