Romania Month continues with my picks for the best World Heritage sites in Romania.

The full list of Romania’s World Heritage sites is impressively long. So long that you might be tempted to assume that Romania has naked pictures of World Heritage’s sister. They’re everywhere and, more importantly, each one is super cool.

Suffice to say, picking just a few from this list was not easy, and you should definitely check out the others, but without further babbling, my picks for the best World Heritage sites in Romania are:

The fortified church of Biertan

The fortified church of Biertan

The more accessible, but no less cooler, of the top fortified Saxon church villages. Biertan, 27km southwest of Sighisoara, has a truly awesome 15th-century Saxon double-walled church, the site of the Lutheran bishop from 1572-1867 and a Unesco World Heritage site since 1993.

The church’s sacristy once held treasures, kept safe by its over-kill formidable door with 19 locks! The astonishing engineering of these locks won first prize at the Paris World Expo in 1900.

The church grounds hold several buildings, including a small bastion which was famously used (according to legend) as a last-ditch effort to discourage couples wanting to divorce; the couple was supposedly locked in the bastion together for two weeks with only one bed and one set of cutlery. Apparently this method was so successful that only one couple decided to go through with their divorce in 400 years!

There is also a winery just outside of town with very informal tours (led by what we guessed was the guy who makes sure all the wine barrels still taste good – daily) and dirt cheap bottles from their “store” (spare room).

Village of Viscri

Viscri Church, Romania

You may never want to leave this place; partly because it’s so flipping cool and atmospheric and partly because the 10km ghastly road that leads here will have you arranging for your chiropractor to be choppered in for an emergency alignment.

There’s no public transport access to this village, 40km southeast of Sighisoara, and no tour buses will take out the necessary insurance to forage that road, so things here are pricelessly quiet, allowing you to soak up the Saxon beauty. Aside from melting into village life, the main attraction here is the fortified church, a Unesco World Heritage site, dating from 1185.

The Painted Monasteries of Southern Bucovina

Voronet Monastery, one of the painted churches of Bucovina

Pilgrims and the wicked unite in their appreciation of the arresting beauty of Southern Bucovina’s painted monasteries, many of which – though not all – have the unusual distinction of being painted on the outside as well as the inside. These beauties, dating from the 15th century, are well deserving of their UNESCO World Heritage status. You can visit them repeatedly, stare at them for hours (as I have), and still not take in all the detail.

Moldavia isn’t the first thing on a typical Romania itinerary, but it should be. I strongly encourage you to not be one of those tour zombies that does Transylvania and then skedaddles before seeing something really special.

Historic center of Sighişoara

Sighisoara’s clock tower and, in the foreground, Vlad Dracula’s childhood home, now a restaurant

Yes, yes, it’s Vlad Tepes’ (Dracula) birthplace – bite, suck, die – but more importantly this city wonderfully typifies the town you probably had in mind when you first decided to visit Romania. The hill-top citadel and clock tower, 500 year old, colorful buildings and a collection of arresting museums are really why you should come here. Once you’ve taken in these sights, hang around for a day or two and bike, hike, hitch or beg your way to the nearby Saxon villages of Biertan and Viscri (both mentioned in this post).

Wooden Churches of Maramureş

The numerous, remarkable wooden churches of Maramureș are built entirely out of timber, as advertised, usually with a disproportionately large roof and a tall, slim bell tower.

The surviving churches were constructed between the 17th century and the 19th century. As with many anomalies like this, the wooden churches sprouted up as a direct result of The Man; in this case a ban on building stone Orthodox churches by the (Catholic) Austro-Hungarian authorities who were the administrators of the region at the time.

Eight of the wooden churches in Maramureș were added to Unesco’s list of World Heritage Sites in 1999, namely the churches in the villages of Bârsana, Budesti, Desesti, Ieud, Plopis, Poienile Izei, Rogoz and Surdesti.

Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve

Europe’s second largest delta, this is where the mighty Danube River empties into the Black Sea, just south of the Ukrainian border, after passing through 10 countries and absorbing countless lesser waterways. The Danube Delta splits into three channels – the Chilia, Sulina and Sfantu Gheorghe arms – creating 4,187-sq km of wetland (3446 sq km of which are in Romania) lorded over by 300 species of birds and 150 species of fish. Reed marshes cover 1,563 sq km, constituting one of the largest expanses of reed beds in the world. Almost thirty different types of ecosystems have been counted.

The river discharges an average of 6300 cubic meters of water per second, creating a constantly evolving landscape considered to be Europe’s youngest and least stable land, evidenced by the Sfantu Gheorghe lighthouse; built by the sea in 1865, it now stands 3km from open water.

The Danube Delta is protected under the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve Authority (DDBR), set up in response to the ecological disaster that befell it (A.K.A. Dictator Nicolae Ceausescu) when that dough head tried to transform it into an agricultural region. There are 18 protected areas – 506 sq km (8.7% of the total area) including a 500-year-old forest and Europe’s largest pelican colony.

The Monastery of Horezu

Last, but not least among the best World Heritage sites in Romania, Horezu Monastery is a gorgeous site, established in 1694, about half way between Curtea de Arges and Târgu Jiu in Wallachia. The monastery and its splendid mountain setting is one of Romania’s many unsung treasures. Located at the end of a long, increasingly picturesque road the monastery is a “stern, but at the same time welcoming fortress.” It was built in a swift four years during the reign of Constantin Brâncoveanu, and is famed for its unique synthesis of Western and Oriental architectural styles.

The church has an unusually large pronaos and open porch supported by ornate stone-carved columns. The church’s interior frescos are underscored by the massive alter, carved in tea tree wood. The old rectory contains frescos from 1705 and is only open for three holy occasions each year, though it takes very little goading for one of the sisters to open it for a sneak peak. While you’re at it, request a visit to the Princely Chapel – it’s a treasure trove of religious artifacts.