Brașov, Romania

Self-guided audio walking tour of Brașov

46 hand-checked places and 2 walking routes. aiGuide notices where you are and tells you each place's story as you walk past, so you can keep your phone in your pocket.

Old Town circuit

12 stops · about 70 min · 1.8 km

The most rewarding 90 minutes in Brașov: around Piața Sfatului and the Council House to the Black Church, down the narrow Strada Sforii past the synagogue, out through Catherine's Gate and the Schei Gate into the Romanian Schei quarter, ending at Piața Unirii, the First Romanian School and St Nicholas.

1. 1.Biserica Adormirea Maicii Domnului

   Late 19th century, 1895 to 1899

   A neo-Byzantine Romanian Orthodox church of 1895 to 1896, hidden in a courtyard behind a brick parish house on Council Square. It marked the Romanian community's move into what had long been a Saxon space.

2. 2.Casa Sfatului

   Late Middle Ages to Baroque, 1420 to 1778

   Brașov's old town hall, standing alone in the middle of Council Square. It began in 1420 as a council room above the furriers' covered market and now houses the Brașov County Museum of History.

3. 3.Piața Sfatului

   Medieval to modern, 14th to 20th century

   The main square of Brașov's walled old town and its market place for nearly seven centuries. It is ringed by restored merchant houses, with the old Council House standing alone in the middle.

4. 4.Casa Negustorilor

   Transylvanian Renaissance, 1540s

   A long Renaissance market hall on the south-east side of Council Square, built in the 1540s by Apollonia Hirscher, the richest woman in sixteenth-century Brașov, so that local craftsmen could store and sell their goods.

5. 5.Biserica Neagră

   Late Gothic, 1383 to about 1477

   Brașov's great late-Gothic hall church, begun in 1383 as the Catholic parish church of Saint Mary and Lutheran since the Reformation of the 1540s. It is the main church of the city's Transylvanian Saxons.

6. 6.Strada Sforii

   Medieval town plan, first recorded in the 17th century

   One of the narrowest streets in Europe, an 80-metre passage between 111 and 135 centimetres wide that links Strada Cerbului with Strada Poarta Șchei, first recorded in the seventeenth century.

7. 7.Sinagoga Neologă Beth Israel

   Austro-Hungarian era, 1899-1901

   Brașov's working synagogue, completed in 1901 to designs by Lipót Baumhorn for the Neolog congregation; it survived Iron Guard vandalism in 1940 and still serves a Jewish community of a few hundred.

8. 8.Poarta Ecaterinei

   Renaissance, 1559

   The Renaissance gate tower of 1559, the only surviving part of the gate that for almost three centuries was the walled town's single passage toward Șchei, the Romanian quarter beneath Mount Tâmpa.

9. 9.Poarta Șchei

   Neoclassical, 1827 to 1828

   A neoclassical gate shaped like a triumphal arch, built in 1827 and 1828 when the old Catherine's Gate could no longer cope with traffic. The Romanian merchants of Șchei paid for its construction.

10. 10.Piața Unirii

    18th to 19th century, living Junii tradition

    The main square of Șchei, long called Piața Prundului, in front of Saint Nicholas Church. Every spring the Junii horsemen of Brașov gather here before their ride through the quarter and the town.

11. 11.Prima Școală Românească

    Late medieval to Enlightenment, 15th to 18th centuries

    The old school house in the churchyard of Saint Nicholas in Șchei, where teaching in Romanian took root in the sixteenth century. Today it is a museum of early Romanian books, charters and printing.

12. 12.Biserica Sfântul Nicolae

    Late Gothic and Baroque, 1495 to 1752

    Brașov's oldest Orthodox church and for centuries the spiritual centre of the Romanians of Țara Bârsei. Begun in stone in 1495, it grew with gifts from the princes of Wallachia and Moldavia.

Walls & viewpoints walk

11 stops · about 80 min · 2.8 km

Along the Saxon guild fortifications from the promenade behind the walls past the Graft Bastion, the White and Black Towers and the Weavers' Bastion, then under Tâmpa to the cable car and the summit viewpoint over the old town.

1. 1.Aleea După Ziduri

   14th to 19th century

   A shaded promenade between the north-west town wall and the Graft stream, laid out as a footpath in 1575. It links Șchei with Livada Poștei past the Black Tower, White Tower and Graft Bastion.

2. 2.Bastionul Graft

   Early 16th century, 1515 to 1550

   A gate-like bastion built between 1515 and 1521 across the Graft stream, midway along the north-west wall. The saddlers' guild defended it, and a drawbridge linked it to the White Tower above.

3. 3.Turnul Alb

   Late Middle Ages, late 15th century

   A horseshoe-shaped watchtower high on the Warthe hill, built in 1460 or 1494 and linked to the town by a drawbridge from the Graft Bastion. Its name comes from its white plaster.

4. 4.Turnul Negru

   Late Middle Ages, 15th century

   A fifteenth-century square watchtower on a rock above the Graft stream, outside the town walls. It is named after a lightning strike in 1559 that burned its roof and blackened its stones.

5. 5.Bastionul Fierarilor

   16th to 17th century; archive since 1923

   The western corner bastion of the old town, defended by the blacksmiths' guild and given its present form in 1668. Since 1923 it has housed the Brașov county branch of the National Archives of Romania.

6. 6.Bastionul Țesătorilor

   Late Middle Ages, 1421 to 1573

   One of the best-preserved bastions of Brașov's walls, built by the linen weavers' guild from 1421 and raised to four storeys by 1573. It houses a museum with a model of the old town.

7. 7.Fortificațiile Brașovului

   Late 14th to 17th century

   Brașov's medieval ring of walls, about three kilometres long and up to 12 metres high, begun in the late fourteenth century. The south-east stretch under Tâmpa is the most complete part that survives.

8. 8.Bastionul Funarilor

   16th to 17th century

   The low stone base of the ropemakers' guild bastion on the south-east wall under Tâmpa. Most of it was demolished after an 1894 sale; the remaining base was restored with the surrounding walls in 2006.

9. 9.Aleea de sub Tâmpa

   19th century, laid out from 1824

   A shaded, kilometre-long promenade laid out from 1824 between the south-eastern town walls and the foot of Tâmpa, still Brașov's favourite walk and the starting point for the cable car and hiking trails.

10. 10.Telecabina Tâmpa

    Socialist Romania, 1970; rebuilt 2025

    The aerial tramway that has lifted visitors from the promenade below Tâmpa to its summit ridge since August 1970, rebuilt by the Swiss ropeway maker Garaventa and reopened in autumn 2025.

11. 11.Muntele Tâmpa

    Dacian era to the present day

    A 960-metre limestone mountain that rises almost 400 metres straight above Brașov's old town, crowned by medieval ruins, a protected forest and the city's illuminated BRAȘOV letters.