Biserica Neagră

Biserica Neagră tickets: which one to buy

The Black Church stands in the old town of Brașov, Transylvania, Romania, near the Council Square, and a ticket is required for visitors outside services, which includes an audio guide. It is the largest Gothic church in Romania and the symbol of Brașov. Walking tours of Brașov combine the church with the Council Square, the Rope Street, one of the narrowest streets in Europe, the city walls and bastions, the Tâmpa mountain cable car and the Saint Nicholas Church in the Schei district.

Brașov is about two and a half hours from Bucharest by train, and it is a base for visiting Bran Castle, associated with Dracula, and Peleș Castle in Sinaia. The church is an active Lutheran church of the Transylvanian Saxon community, and organ concerts are held regularly in summer. Photography inside is not allowed. The ticket office is at the side entrance, and the church is closed to tourists during Sunday services.

Visiting Biserica Neagră: what to see

The church was built between 1383 and around 1480 in the Gothic style by the German-speaking Saxon community of Brașov, and it was dedicated to the Virgin Mary. It became Lutheran during the Reformation in the sixteenth century. In 1689, a great fire, set during a war with the Habsburg army, blackened the walls of the church, which gave it its name, the Black Church. Inside, the church holds the largest collection of Anatolian carpets in Europe outside Turkey, more than a hundred rugs from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, donated by Saxon merchants who traded with the Ottoman Empire, and hung on the balconies and pews. The church's organ, built by Carl August Buchholz in 1839, has about four thousand pipes and is one of the largest in Eastern Europe.

The church also has a baroque altar, carved pews for the guilds, and a bell weighing six tonnes, the largest in Romania. The church's exterior has Gothic portals and buttresses, and the tower rises about sixty-five metres. The interior is spacious, with a tall nave and pillars. Stone statues of saints stand on the buttresses outside, some replaced with copies. The church's altar was made in the nineteenth century. The balconies around the nave hold the carpets. The memorial tablets and tombs of Saxon notables line the walls. The church was restored in the twentieth century, and the stonework has been cleaned. The bell tower's bell is rung for services.

Biserica Neagră opening hours and the best time to go

The church is open from Tuesday to Sunday, and closed on Mondays, with shorter hours in winter. Organ concerts are held several evenings a week in summer. Brașov is busy in summer and at weekends, and the Christmas market in the Council Square in December is popular. The surrounding Carpathian Mountains offer skiing in winter at Poiana Brașov. Spring and autumn are pleasant for walking in the old town and along the walls. Allow about forty-five minutes for the church, and take the cable car up Tâmpa mountain for views over the town. The Tâmpa cable car, a short walk from the old town, climbs to a viewpoint beside the Hollywood-style Brașov sign.