On the road between Sibiu and Medias, one can find a small community of about 3400 people called Slimnic, a name quite difficult to pronounce in Romanian due to its many consonants. A typical Transylvanian village, part of the Sibiu County and the ancient Sibiu Saxon Seat (Hauptstuhl Hermannstadt), it is known as Stolzenburg in German and Szelindek in Hungarian. And it is mostly known in the surrounding area for its citadel, the Slimnic Citadel (Cetatea Slimnicului in Romanian), which we are going to visit in this article. Therefore, we begin with a general view of the village.

Slimnic is old. The place has been inhabited since the Early Bronze Age (Coțofeni culture, that’s between 3500 and 2500 BC), then the Geto-Dacians and the Romans have left traces in the area. The village is first mentioned in 1282, being built by the Germans (Transylvanian Saxons), so as to defend the road between Mediaș (Mediasch) and Sibiu (Hermannstadt). The fortress was also built by the Germans, but they were gradually replaced by Romanians and then by Gypsies. Nowadays there aren’t any Germans left in the village and the population is dwindling. But being on a national road, it isn’t likely to vanish completely…

So here is the entrance to the citadel. Quite depressing… not the best investment in tourism… despite the fact that the fortress is from the 12th century and is on the 2010 Romanian List of Historical Monuments. I can’t seem to understand why the cross with Jesus on it is next to the entrance but I shall leave that as it is… The great part is that there is asphalt up to the entrance and one doesn’t need to swim in mud. There is some sort of parking to the right and a long wooden stick on the stairs at the entrance, something that made me stop for a couple of moments and reflect if it’s not a barrier of some kind or a sign that visitors aren’t welcome. After some pondering and after seeing some gypsy children running after some sheep in the citadel’s garden, I concluded that maybe the stick was left there unintentionally and I moved on. The gate is of a rather coarse turquoise-painted iron sheet and the fence is almost invisible but still there yet…

So I entered. No guide, nobody to ask for directions. The feeling was the one of entering in a ruined place where nobody cares if you’re dead or alive… or if you want to steal or destroy or anything… This is the southern side, the fortress being rather long, on a north-south direction. So the best thing to do was to follow the walls. And yes, the sky was unreally blue.

The citadel is built on a hill called Burgbasch. The oldest part is a tower in the northern part. It is built mainly in the Gothic style. You can note small holes made for defensive reasons. The citadel has seen Tatar invasions, then the Otoman Turks, the Hungarians and the local Germans have fought, destroying and rebuilding successively the fortress until the plague came in 1717 and caused more havoc.

In 1855, in their “great wisdom”, the locals have demolished the gothic church from inside the fortress and used the material to build a wall for… the local cemetery. So much for the spirituality of the place… or for the appreciation of the architectural heritage… Unsurprisingly, in 1870, a part of the wall forming the southern side (that is, the view from the entrance, from where I came) has collapsed.

The citadel was last restored in 1959, and then… then we arrive to the present time and to the situation as seen nowadays.

This is my favorite view of the citadel, with this tree growing straight from the walls. I doubt this helps the walls – it’s one more sign of decay and forgetfulness – but the entire image has a romantic quality that I simply cannot overlook… or fathom…

And a rather eerie vibe comes also from this image of the village, looking westwards (towards the Mândra village). It was cold and extremely windy. The brown of the earth and the brown of the houses give a particular frigid Saxon vibe, which I am not going to forget easily…

And here it is: the tower… The structure of the walls – brick and not stone – is easily visible. Perhaps a visit inside would make things more interesting and offer shelter from the wind…

Oh, no! Closed! What a surprise!!! Even if, according to the notice, the citadel can be seen daily between 10AM and 7PM, there’s nobody there. The price per person is 3 lei, which, judging by what the citadel has to offer, should perhaps be at least 10 times higher. For your information, 3 lei = 0.6 euros or 0.63 US dollars (to put it simpler, 1 euro or dollar = 5 lei).

Wanna know more? Want to know the history of the place? Scan the QR code… if you can… Yes, the code is melted by the scorching sun or soaked by the rain… I can’t tell… but basically… well… you can’t do anything with that…

But you can follow the walls and see where the fortress ends… It ends in a pit, or better say, a ditch. One cannot go around the fortress because one is stopped by the abrupt terrain. And a broken bone is not a good idea in this forgotten place…

But the eastwards view is also beautiful, and with this last landscape I finish my visit in this windy, sunny and ruined place. Thanks for joining me!