Following the footprints of Vlad Tepes

Welcome to your Europamundo Trip Style!!! The information about the meeting place and start time of your circuit can be found on your voucher.

After breakfast we depart for SINAIA, a city and mountain resort that owes its name to the Monastery of Sinaia, around which it was built. The name of the monastery comes from the biblical Mount Sinai, a mountain at the northeast of Egypt where, according to the Bible, God gave the 10 commandments to Moses. King Charles I of Romania built his summer house, Peles Castle, near the city. We can enjoy its views. We continue towards Bran Castle, a very touristic medieval fortress due to its relationship with Bram Stoker´s novel "Dracula" (Entrance included). After lunch we continue towards PREJMER, to visit this fortified Lutheran church founded by the Germanic Teutonic knights in the early 13th century and then taken by the Saxon community of Transylvania, who fortified it to defend against invasions (entrance included). We will finish the day in BRASOV, a city surrounded by the Carpathian Mountains and famous for the Saxon walls and bastions of medieval times, still one of the most important centers of German origin Transylvanian Saxons. Brasov was awarded with the title of martyr-city due to the participation of its citizens in the 1989 Romanian Revolution. The guide will accompany you to discover this beautiful city. We will also visit its "Black Church" oriented towards the Stafului House (former town hall). Accommodation.

We leave Brasov in the morning to visit the fortress of RASNOV (entrance included), built around the year 1215 by the Teutonic Knights. Its famous well is located in the center of the fortress with a curious dark legend. A few kilometers away is ZARNESTI BEARS RESERVE (entrance included), a very special place since in addition to being the largest grizzly bears reserve in the world is also a place for care and residence for battered bears. Cristina Lapis is its founder and her love for bears has made her rescue more than one hundred. We will know how this unique reserve was created and see real bears walking quietly. After this visit, stop for lunch, and then we will turn to VISCRI, a somewhat isolated village in the heart of Transylvania, built around its fortified church, a World Heritage Site since 1999. Free time to wander along its cobblestone streets that will transport us back in time to the Middle Ages. We will continue to SIGHISOARA, hometown of Vlad Tepes, a national hero who inspired Bram Stoker for his famous character Count Dracula. Located in the Transylvanian Carpathians, we will know this city accompanied by our guide. We will admire the houses of the citadel, the Clock Tower, its cemetery. Its fortified medieval old town was listed by Unesco as a World Heritage Site in 1999. If you wish you can know the house where Vlad Tepes was allegedly born, now turned into a curious and extravagant museum-restaurant. Accommodation.

We leave Sighisoara and head for BIERTAN, a town located in central Romania, north of the Sibiu district in the Transylvania region. Biertan is the most important region of the so-called Saxon villages with fortified churches in Transylvania and was declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 1993. We will get to know the particular church of Biertan, the most spectacular of all those in Romania (entrance included). We will continue towards ALBA JULIA, former capital of the Dacia province during the Roman Empire and where the first Romanian king was crowned. We will walk through its streets to visit the Citadel of Alba Carolina, the Cathedral of Saint Michael and the Crowning Cathedral. Free time for lunch and try the typical dishes. Then we will head for HUNEDOARA, to admire one of the most spectacular castles in Romania, the Hunedoara Castle, also called Corvino Castle (entrance included). Built on a Roman hill-fort, it belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary until the 16th century, when it passed to Transylvania. Vlad Tepes is believed to have been imprisoned here for 7 years after being deposed in 1462. After this visit we shall continue to SIBIU, the most important of the cities founded during the 12th century. Of Germanic influence such as Brasov, it was an economic and cultural center during the Middle Ages, where the influential merchant guilds showed their wealth and power by constructing large buildings and fortifications that we can still appreciate. Along with our guide, we will get to know its city center, surrounded by walls, with beautiful, colorful and well-preserved buildings along its streets, Large Square, Lies Bridge, Goldsmiths Square. Then we can rest at one of its bar terraces before going to the hotel. Accommodation

Before leaving Sibiu, we will include a visit to the Astra Etnografic Complex, Romania´s largest open-air ethnographic museum that shows in a very complete way the country´s heritage and culture. We will cross the Carpathian Mountains to get to know the MONASTERY OF COZIA, where Mircea I of Wallachia is buried. He´s one of the main lords of the Principality of Wallachia, who is credited with the greatest expansion of the region during medieval times. We will continue our route to another great monument, the MONASTERY OF HOREZU, a "Brancovano" style example of Orthodox worship. We will end this day in CURTEA DE ARGES, one of the oldest cities in Romania. Its imposing Romanian Byzantine style churches take us back to the glory times in which it was the capital of Wallachia. Accommodation.