From the architectural point of view, one can notice in the city of Sighisoara the presence of eclecticism: a Gothic style continued by the Renaissance one, and followed by the Baroque style, at which some other influences are added, both in the city and in Down town.

THE MILITARY ARCHITECTURE

The defence system built and protected by the guilds consisted in a long wall of 930 m, 14 defence towers and 5 artillery bastions. There are still preserved 9 towers, 2 bastions and a part of the precint wall.

THE CITY TOWERS

Out of all the towers, the one that best reflects the defence effort, and at the same time, the striving for affirmation and authority in the city of Sighisoara, is The Clock Tower, which became the very symbol of the town. Situated on the Eastern side of the inferior plateau of the city, it was built in the city in order to protect the main gate of the town and to house the Council. Its double function explains the care with which the townsmen built it, its appearance at the same time severe and festive. The Clock Tower was also useful to the meetings of the Council and to depositing the archives and the treasury of Sighisoara. Erected in the 14th century and even later, the tower is very picturesque with its double weepers - namely the defensive arrangement meant to control the access into the city, with battlements, a protection road and firing galleries, and finally, with its four turrets that symbolized - as an architectonic effigy of the entire community - the judicial autonomy of the city, which had the famous jus gladii, the seigniorial right of punishment.

The building has at its foundation a rectangular prism; it has five levels, which together with the balcony and the pyramidal roof are 64 meters high.

The roof destroyed by the great fire on 30th April 1676, was rebuilt in 1677 by the artisans Veit Gruber from Tyrol, and Filip Bonge from Salzburg, and the master carpenter Valentin. Mended several times (1775,1804) the roof got its present shape in 1894, when many colour enamelled tiles replaced the old cover, and the two emblems, and the inscription were painted on the front side looking over down town. The general form of the roof (from 1677)bears the influence of the Baroque style and is 34 meters high. The roof is inserted with a lantern and it is followed by two onion shaped domes, superposed and interrupted, they too, by two small lanterns.

The spire of the roof ends into a golden globe that contains a volume equivalent to 10 buckets. Above the ball there is a bar for the atmospheric changes, the so-called "weather bar", and on it there is a two-headed eagle that sustains the weather-cork - the cock showing the wind's direction. At the extremities of the roof there are 4 turrets. These turrets are 12,5 meters high and are covered by enamelled tiles. Each turret ends with a globe, on which there is a wind little flag. On two of these flags, besides the six petal rosette there also is the year 1894, the restoration date, and on the other two the name of the two master builders: Leonhard and Kovatsch, who assured the general renovation of the Tower, and the name of the tinsmith Johan Polder, who did all the plate iron works.

The edifice received at the beginning of the 17th century a horologe remade in 1648 by Johann Kirschel, equipped after the fashion of the Central European burghs, with lime wood statues of 0,80 meters high, belonging to a rustic Baroque, and representing the pagan gods who personified the days of the week: Diane, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn and the Sun. The present mechanism of the clock is newer, being accomplished on a special order in Switzerland by the FUCHS firm and installed in the Clock Tower on 1st April 1906. The clock was modernized with an electric engine in 1964 by the artisans Konradt, father and son. Outside, the clock is equipped with two grant dials 2,40 meters in diameter, on each facade of the tower, and with statuettes installed in niches. Looking over the city there is the Goddess of Peace with an olive branch, accompanied by the drummer who is beating the hours in his bronze drum; the Goddess of Fairness with a balance, the Goddess of Justice with a spade and two angels representing Day and Night: at 6 o'clock in the morning the angel that stays for Day is coming out, and at 18 o'clock Night is coming out carrying two burning candles in his hands. Over Down town, under the figurines representing the days of the week0 there is the Executioner and the second drummer. The figurines representing the days of the week, installed on a whell, are moving at midnight marking the change of the day. The specialists of the Brukenthal Museum from Sibiu have recently restored the figurines of the tower clock owing to the Sighisoara museum's own material efforts. The Clock Tower is housing the History Museum of the Sighisoara municipality since 1899.

Under the Clock Tower, the main entrance gate in the city, the access was through two galleries. The gallery for pedestrians was built in the 18th century and turned into a prison and torture chamber for prisoners sentenced to death.

THE LEATHER DRESSRS'TOWER - Placed on the South-Eastern side, it is one of the oldest towers, fact that is also reflected by its simple and efficient architecture: its square foundation, the small dimensions of the base, its simple roof.

THE TINKERS' TOWER - Represents a unique example of medieval architecture: the solid foundation on a square base continues with the median pentagonal- side, which sustains the superior octagonal zone with a hexagonal roof. As an element of fortification, it controls through the firing windows the entire South-Eastern part of the city. Cannon ball traces can be seen even today on its walls. The Fusiliers'Gallery, unique in the architecture of the city, completes the tower. It underwent many repairs in the course of time.

THE GOLDSMITHS'TOWER - Together with the Castaldo Bastion was protecting the South-Eastern corner, one of the most sensitive points of the city. The tower was as powerful as the guilt that built it. Blown up by the Kurutzy in 1706, hit by the lightning and burnt down in 1809, it was partially demolished and turned in a gymnasium at the High school on the Hill - in 1863. In 1932, the present mortuary chapel belonging to the town's German Evangelic community was built in its place.

THE ROPE MAKERS'TOWER - Dating probably from the 13th century, this tower, as the Goldsmiths'Tower, belonged to the old fortification on top of the hill. Having a square plan with simple shapes, it is today the home of the guardian of the Evangelic cemetery on the hill.

THE BUTCHERS'TOWER - The portion of the wall that relates the Rope Makers'Tower with the Butchers'Tower was kept unchanged on all its height, so that one can read the brick laying phases. The Butchers'Tower is an octagonal building erected on a hexagonal base in order to obtain a perspective over the bastion in front of it.

THE FURRIERS'TOWER - It is situated not far from the Butchers'Tower, to which is is related through the Torle gate, where the flocks were divided in the evening. The tower is modest as dimensions and shape, with a square plan, dating from the 15th century.

THE WEAVERS'TOWER - The data about this tower are very poor. It was demolished in 1858, and with the stone that resulted the town's streets were paved for the first time. It is known that this tower has protected for a long time the town's military prison.

THE TAYLORS'TOWER - It belonged to one of the richest guild. It imposes through simplicity and massiveness, and can be dated from the 14th-15th centuries. As the Clock Tower, it has an entrance consisting in two vaulted galleries, which long ago had had oak gates and iron lattice. During the fire of 1676, the town's gunpowder works, situatde in this place, exploded destroying a part of the town. During the Medieval Age, the tower had only one road of access, the second being open in 1936.

THE SHOEMAKERS'TOWER - Situated in the North-Eastern part of the city, it is mentioned in 1521, rebuilt in 1650, and modified in 1681. It bears the influence of the baroque architecture. The tower, in front of which was an artillery bastion, demolished in 1846, houses today the local radio station "Radioson".

THE LOCKSMITHS'TOWER - With a square plan, this tower was repaired after the fire of 1676 and demolished in 1894 in order to give place to the present Catholic Church.

THE COOPERS'TOWER - Demolished in 1886, it seems to have been an old dwelling tower with elements of Romanic architecture, dated from the 13th century.

THE BARBERS'TOWER - According to the few data this tower was on the place of the present Blacksmiths'Tower and was demolished in 1631.

THE BLACKSMITHS'TOWER - Built in 1631, is one of the flanking towers, attached to the precint wall, remarkable through its massiveness. It had protected the Monastery Church in case of siege. It is also know that in 1631 there was also built an artillery bastion between the Blacksmiths'Tower and the Coopers'Tower, meanwhile demolished.

Ultima actualizare: July 3 2002