{"id":7805,"date":"2023-06-12T22:48:48","date_gmt":"2023-06-12T20:48:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ilupin.com\/en\/?page_id=7805"},"modified":"2026-02-21T00:03:53","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T23:03:53","slug":"2023-06-06-risnov","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ilupin.com\/en\/travels\/eastern-europe\/romania\/2023-06-06-risnov\/","title":{"rendered":"R\u00e2\u0219nov citadel & Valley cave"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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  1. View from my Bra\u0219ov apartment. The building on the right is just like mine.\n<\/li>\n \n
  2. BRP Bank chose the branch with taste.\n<\/li>\n\n
  3. This is me in about forty years.\n<\/li>\n\n
  4. The Town Hall consisted of one tower six centuries ago, and began to grow with other premises a hundred years later.\n<\/li>\n\n
  5. Bicycle cafe.\n<\/li>\n\n
  6. The \u0218chei Gate in the classical style was built in the 19th<\/sup> century due to the insufficient capacity of the Catherine\u2019s Gate.\n<\/li>\n\n
  7. Catherine\u2019s Gate of the 16th<\/sup> century. The only (and paid) entrance to the city for the disenfranchised \u0218chei Romanians during Saxon rule.\n<\/li>\n\n
  8. Students of the National College of Andrei \u0218aguna<\/a> (baron, bishop and educator) are going fishing.\n<\/li>\n\n
  9. College teachers\u2019 house.\n<\/li>\n\n
  10. The Black Tower from a respectful distance.\n<\/li>\n\n
  11. Its contemporary and neighbour, the White Tower, differs more in geometry than colour. The cross-section is semicircular (not evident from here).\n<\/li>\n\n
  12. Here\u2019s the best city view. Town Hall on the left, Black Church on the right, TV tower and funicular in the middle.\n<\/li>\n\n
  13. Nice little house on the way to the station. Cock-a-doodle-doo.\n<\/li>\n\n
  14. Train station beauty. Town Hall, \u0218chei Gate and \u201cDracula\u2019s Castle\u201d (which has nothing to do with Vlad the Impaler<\/a>).\n<\/li>\n\n
  15. That\u2019s why I\u2019m not going to Bran, but to R\u00e2\u0219nov<\/a>. It\u2019s more authentic here.\n<\/li>\n\n
  16. Flower market and the city name on the hill (it\u2019s the same<\/a> in Bra\u0219ov, if anyone noticed).\n<\/li>\n\n
  17. Romanesque-Gothic Evangelical Church of the 13th<\/sup> century. In 1543, the Lutherans covered up the medieval paintings, now partially restored.\n<\/li>\n\n
  18. Balkan utopia<\/a> by cartoonist Sergiu Vasile. \n<\/li>\n\n
  19. R\u00e2\u0219nov Citadel built in the 1220s by the Teutonic Knights at the request of the king Andrew II<\/a>, who expelled them immediately after that.\n<\/li>\n\n
  20. But the German peasants and artisans remained, turning the fortress into a fortified village, for times were turbulent<\/a>.\n<\/li>\n\n
  21. The last time locals took refuge here was during the Hungarian Revolution<\/a> of 1848. Then the citadel was abandoned and slowly collapsed.\n<\/li>\n\n
  22. Now the fortress is inaccessible to visitors, but nothing stops you climbing the walls.\n<\/li>\n\n
  23. One can get to it by a funicular, similar to an industrial elevator.\n<\/li>\n\n
  24. From its top deck, the whole city is at your fingertips.\n<\/li>\n\n
  25. There\u2019s a very atmospheric Pe\u0219tera Valea Cet\u0103\u021bii (Fortress Valley \u0421ave) over two or three kilometres from the citadel.\n<\/li>\n\n
  26. It was discovered in 1949 (when underground waters burst out), and for a long time one had to crawl inside through a narrow gap.\n<\/li>\n\n
  27. In 2011, they expanded the entrance, installed electricity and created a gallery. It turned out pretty nice, and the scale can be assessed, too.\n<\/li>\n\n
  28. My little Stonehenge.\n<\/li>\n\n
  29. I don\u2019t see why a noble don shouldn\u2019t dig a well at the station.\n<\/li>\n\n
  30. The ancient train from Bra\u0219ov to R\u00e2\u0219nov is more atmospheric than comfortable. But it fits perfectly with the platform. \n<\/li>\n\n<\/ol><\/div>\n\n\n\n