Brașov

Brașov, Kronstadt to its Saxon burghers and Brassó to the Hungarians, lies in the Burzenland at the foot of Mount Tâmpa, where the passes of the Carpathians lead south into Wallachia. Saxon guilds and trading families filled the walled town around a large market square, while Romanians lived outside the walls in the Șchei quarter. The Ottomans raided the area in 1421 and 1438. After 1448 John Hunyadi had the old fortress on the saddle of Tâmpa pulled down and its stone used to strengthen the town in the valley, now guarded by eight bastions and a ring of towers.

The Black Church, finished in 1477, was a great Gothic church, but its second tower was never built for lack of money. In 1424 furriers wrote the first guild statute, and by 1798 the town counted 43 guilds. In 1486 Brașov joined the Saxon University, the self-governing body of the Transylvanian Saxons. Johannes Honterus opened a printing press in 1533 and a gymnasium in 1544, leading the town to the Reformation. In 1521 its judge Johann Benkner received one of the oldest surviving letters in Romanian, from Neacșu of Câmpulung, reporting Turkish movements; in 1559 Deacon Coresi printed his first book here. Michael the Brave entered in 1599. A great fire on 21 April 1689 destroyed most of the old town, and its rebuilding took over a century.