Gothic then baroque
A Dominican building renovated by the Ursulines in baroque form.
Chainwit. — CC BY 4.0 · Leontin l — CC BY-SA 3.0 ro · Leontin l — CC BY-SA 3.0 ro · Cezar Suceveanu — CC BY-SA 3.0 ro
A church and convent in Sibiu's upper town, originally Dominican and of the fifteenth century, passing to the Ursuline sisters in the eighteenth. The building is another model of Transylvania's religious upheavals. It was built by the Dominican friars in the Gothic manner, then closed with the Protestant Reformation when Sibiu turned Lutheran in the sixteenth century and was put to other uses. After the arrival of the Catholic Habsburgs at the start of the eighteenth century it returned to religious use and was handed to the Ursuline sisters, who renovated it in the baroque manner and added a girls' school. That school is an important point: the Ursuline order was founded in Italy in the sixteenth century for one essential purpose, the education of girls, at a time when organised schooling for girls barely existed. Its schools spread across Europe and the Americas, and in many cities were the first formal education available to females. The church is still in use and entry is normally free.
A Dominican building renovated by the Ursulines in baroque form.
The Ursulines were founded in the sixteenth century for exactly this.
In many cities their schools were the first available to girls.
Eastern upper town, Sibiu
The Evangelical Cathedral on Huet Square is the largest and most important: fourteenth-century Gothic with a tower rising about seventy-three metres that can be climbed, holding a wall painting of 1445 and the tombs of the city's mayors. The Orthodox Cathedral to the south is an early twentieth-century building in the neo-Byzantine manner with an ornamented dome. And the Catholic church on the great square is eighteenth-century baroque. All three can be visited in two hours.
Late spring and early autumn are the best times: mild weather and fewer crowds. Summer is hot and busy but is the festival season — the Sibiu International Theatre Festival in June is among Europe's largest theatre festivals. December has its own appeal with the Christmas market in the great square, among the finest in the region, but the cold is severe.
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