Folklore

When I asked a local in Brașov to explain the difference between Catholicism and Orthodoxy, he didn’t quote scripture or mention rituals. He smiled and said simply, “We didn’t have crusades, the Inquisition, or witch trials.” It was such an abrupt, almost startling answer — not theological, but historical, and human. The divergent memory was of two civilizations that shared one faith but grew into very different moral worlds. Divergent Paths from the Same Root Both Catholicis

When most people think of Transylvanian folklore, they picture a world of haunted castles, wandering spirits, and ancient Christian rituals. The stories that were shaped by Romanian peasants, Saxon settlers, and Hungarian nobility. Yet there is another, quieter current that runs through the same mountains and valleys: the folklore of the Roma. Unlike the fixed traditions of the villages, Roma stories move. They travel from place to place, changing shape like smoke in the wind

Every October, the internet fills with warnings: “Keep your black cats inside. Pagans might harm them for Halloween.” It’s an old accusation, recycled year after year, and completely unfounded. The historical record shows that the real persecution of cats came not from pagans, but from the religious. The Church and its faithful turned the cat from a household guardian into a symbol of the Devil. Their crusade against these animals left a tragic trail of fur, fire, and fear th

When autumn arrives in Transylvania, the air grows sharp and metallic, and the forests shed their color until only the stone of the mountains seems alive. Smoke rises from the first hearth fires, curling above tiled roofs and lingering with its sweet scent in the cold. In the West, this is the season of Halloween I am familiar with - a celebration of ghosts, costumes, and death. In Romania, the same chill carries something older. There are no pumpkin lanterns or suburban tric

Before the word “vampire” ever reached Western Europe and long before Bram Stoker turned Transylvania into a gothic legend, Romanians were already telling stories about the strigoi — spirits that slipped between the worlds of the living and the dead. These were not imagined monsters from distant castles but familiar faces: neighbors, relatives, and townspeople whose souls could not find rest. In traditional belief, a strigoi was not born from evil so much as imbalance. It was

In the heart of Brașov’s old town, framed by the Carpathian foothills, stands a monument that has watched over centuries of change: wars, fires, reformations, and rebirth. Locals call it Biserica Neagră — The Black Church. Its stone walls rise like memory itself, weathered and immovable, carrying the spirit of a people who refused to vanish. A Church Born of the Saxons Construction of the Black Church began around 1380, when Brașov, known then as Kronstadt, was one of the mos

In Transylvania, as November dies and winter gathers on the hills, there comes a night when the old beliefs stir again. Between November 29 and 30, the feast of Saint Andrew, the veil between worlds is said to thin. It is a time when wolves speak, spirits wander, and villagers once guarded their homes with garlic and prayer. Known as Noaptea Sfântului Andrei, this night marks one of Romania’s most mysterious folk observances, a blend of Christian feast and pre-Christian ritua

In the shadow of medieval churches and fortified towers, one might least expect Bavarian-style beer tents, oompah bands, and...

Perched above the Târnava Mare River, the citadel of Sighișoara has never been only a Saxon fortress. Its towers, stairways, and houses...

Cat, watcher in the half-light, you move like a shadow that chose its own shape, fur humming with the memory of danger, eyes catching...

Perched on a rocky outcrop at the edge of the Carpathians, Bran Castle looks as though it was built for legend. Its towers and courtyards...

Sighișoara rises from the Târnava Mare valley like something pulled from a medieval manuscript — pastel houses pressed close, cobbled...

Every city carries its stories, but in Brașov, legends feel as present as the cobblestones beneath your feet. Nestled in the Carpathians,...