“The birds are flying high and the clouds are stable. We will have good weather,” predicted Tavi, our local guide. “In the Carpathian mountains, when there’s pressure, the clouds will be flying around and the birds are still,” he explained.

That was reassuring as we were just about to embark on a two-hour walk around Brasov’s pedestrianised, cobbled streets, a compact city enveloped by lush mountain scenery, and where you can still see remnants of medieval Saxon walls. 

Brasov, the most visited city in Transylvania, remains somewhat under the radar for Western Europeans. Yet Brasov has at least one royal fan in the British monarch King Charles who visits regularly and even owns properties there.

Brasov started life as a medieval fortress founded by Teutonic Knights some 600 years ago on a hill on the northern slope of the Transylvanian Alps (Southern Carpathians). It was fortified with city walls, a citadel (later destroyed) and a few villages outside the wall. This was where a Saxon (German) colony with a long heritage of trading in textiles settled. They called it Kronstadt.

There are still remnants of fortifications, segments of the original Saxon wall and a handful of bastions, including the Graft Bastion, located in the middle of the citadel’s northwest wall. 

There was a period of communism in Romania when, in 1948, the Communist Party under the rule of Nicolae Ceausescu took over the Romanian Social Democratic Party. By the early 1950s, the group, supported by Stalin, achieved full control over the party and country. It must have been a surreal time for Romanians and everyday life is documented at the Museum of Living in Communism. There’s also an interesting timeline of the events including when in 1988 Ceausescu was overthrown leading to the free elections in 1990.

Council Square – Piata Sfatului

Red roofs of Brasov surround Council Square Image by Dan Novac from Pixabay

Fast forward to today, the Council Square of Brasov is now cheek-to-jowl with colourful Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque buildings, a modernistic fountain, and the 13th century town hall and clocktower at its heart-  this is now the History Museum of Brasov.

Several museums gather here including, Hirscher House, the Orthodox Cathedral, the Museum of Urban Civilization, and the Casa Muresenilor Museum.

Brasov is perfect for cafe culture and many alfresco eateries I took time to admire the scene. Looking skywards to eye up the Brasov Hollywood-style sign on top of Tampa Mountain and sipping my morning coffee before heading off to explore what was once the place for vibrant trades by merchants living in the red-roofed homes beyond. 

Shopping around the square and the streets that fan out is all about craft shops selling highly embroidered clothes, wood carvings, intricate lace, pretty painted eggs – I bought one –  woodcarvings, and hand-painted pottery.

The Black Church, Brasov

Council Square is home to perhaps the most interesting church in Brasov, The Black Church. Originally called Saint Mary’s Church, it is a popular landmark in the city. Brasov has a sizeable Saxon (German) and a Lutheran Evangelical community which explains why the mass held in this 600-year-old Gothic church is in German. Its brooding dark brown hue contrasts with the otherwise colourful architecture. Some say the colour was due to a fire in 1689, others blame pollution. It is a colossal church that can easily hold 5,000 people.  

Palace of Justice

Palace of Justice Brasov former HQ for the communist party

The beautiful eclectic Palace of Justice was built in 1902 and was used as a court. Later it became the HQ of the Communist Party. On 15 November 1987 demonstrators forced their way into the building and threw portraits of the dictator Ceaușescu out of the windows. This was the end of 42 years of communism.

By 1989 the Palace of Justice became the site of the anti-communist revolution in Brasov. In 1993 the Court of Appeal Brasov made the building its home along with the  Prefecture of Brasov and the County Council. 

Inside has the biggest mechanical organ in the country and the largest collection of Oriental carpets outside Turkey.

Catherine’s Gate

Heading out of the old town and through an archway is the 16th-century Catherine’s Gate and its four turrets. Built as a defence system by the Tailors Guild, this was the fortified throughway into the city. Though it carries its fairytale looks well this is where many miscreants were put to death for their crimes.

Right next door is Shei Gate so glance at it before moving on to the quirky Rope Street.

Rope Street

Close to the Black Church is Rope Street (Strada Sforii) called so as it is long, a little twisty and the narrowest street (allegedly) in Europe at only 1.2 meters (4 feet) wide. It was used as a corridor for firemen and had the reputation of being a bit of a lover’s lane for mainly illicit love. It is a little daunting to walk through it especially as the tall buildings on either side seem to lean into each other. Now, clad in graffiti, it appears on Instagram as a novelty.

Brans Castle

Brans Castle looking spooky at night.

Fact File

Tours: The best way to see Brasov is to join a tour with a certified local guide and find out about the history.
Take a walking tour of Brasov with Viator. Check availability.

Where to Stay

Get there

By Train: There’s a direct service from Bucharest North Railway Station (Gara de Nord) to Brasov. The journey takes around two and a half hours and you get great views of the Carpathian mountains.

By Car: Drive from Bucharest to Brasov via the DN1/E60 highway. Drive time is around two and a half hours. 

The post Brasov Travel Guide, Romania appeared first on The Travel Magazine.

Here’s another quick and transformative Lightroom technique from Julieanne Kost—one of the foremost Adobe Experts and a self-proclaimed “digital-imaging evangelist.” Like many of her succinct lessons, this one runs barely four minutes, as she explains the concept of Virtual Copies and describes when and how to make them a part of your Lightroom workflow.

Simply put, a Virtual Copy is a replica of a file with all the adjustments you’ve made so that you can experiment with further enhancements and other modifications without affecting the original image. And because you’re not creating full duplicate versions of the same shot, a Virtual Copy doesn’t place a burden on your hard drive by taking up additional space.

Kost pulls up a seascape photo that she processed in Lightroom for a dark and moody effect. She introduces today’s topic like this: “Let’s say I want to create another version of this photo with a different look.” She clicks the Photo tab atop the Lightroom workspace, and then selects the “Create Virtual Copy” option from a dropdown menu that appears.

Lightroom will then create a secondary thumbnail that’s stored in the catalog. The magic is this: “We’re not taking up extra disk space like we would have by duplicating the original photo.” You can easily differential between the two thumbnails because the Virtual Copy has a page-curl icon on the lower left corner.

The copy can then be modified with different adjustments, the addition of Star Ratings, Keywords, other metadata, and the like. And these changes are only applied to the Virtual Copy—leaving the file with the original edits untouched. Likewise, you can select and adjust the original file further without affecting the Virtual Copy.

Kost demonstrates how this works by moving to Lightroom’s Develop module and applying a Landscape preset to change the look and feel of her image. And a quick glance at the film strip confirms that these changes were only applied to the Virtual Copy

Another space-saving consideration is that you can create as many Virtual Copies as you want—each with a unique effect. Just follow the approach outlined above and each new copy appears as a new thumbnail in the filmstrip at the button of the screen.

Then you can edit each of these versions to your heart’s content, with different cropping, aspect ratio, variations to color, exposure and contrast—and whatever other variables you want to change. When you select all the images and click on Export, Lightroom will export all of the variations as unique files.

There’s a bit more to understand and Kost explains everything you need to know for getting the job done. Be sure to visit Kost’s robust YouTube channel where you’ll find many more helpful editing tips, tricks shortcuts and tutorials for working with Photoshop and Lightroom.

We also suggest watching a tutorial we posted recently, describing another pro’s five favorite mobile apps that will greatly improve your smartphone photographs.