Interactive map of Brașov

How to read Brașov on a map

Brașov looks spread out on a map of the county and resolves into something simple once you know three things.

The walled town sits in a fold of the mountain. The Old Town is tucked into the foot of Tâmpa, the forested hill that rises straight out of the rooftops, with the Black Church and Piața Sfatului at its centre. Almost every first-day sight — the walls and bastions, Strada Sforii, the Catherine Gate — is within a fifteen-minute walk of the square. Șchei, the old Romanian quarter, runs up the valley to the south-west; the 19th-century town and the Centrul Civic spread out to the north and east, and the railway station lies further out beyond them, in the Coresi and station area.

Poiana Brașov is up, not across. The ski resort is only about 12 km away, but it is 400 metres higher, at the end of a winding mountain road — bus 20 from Livada Poștei, or a taxi. On the map it looks like a suburb; in practice it is a trip, and in winter a different climate. See Poiana Brașov.

The castles sit in three different directions. Râșnov and Bran are south-west, on the road towards Zărnești and Piatra Craiului. Peleș is south, 50 km down the Prahova valley at Sinaia. The Saxon fortified churches of Prejmer and Hărman are north-east, on the flat Bârsa plain. Each is a half-day or a day of its own.

Distances, which are longer than they look

The Old Town is small and mostly flat, with a few steep lanes up to the towers. From Piața Sfatului to the Tâmpa cable car is about ten minutes on foot; to the First Romanian School in Șchei, fifteen.

What costs time is the road out. Bran is about 30 km but the road through Râșnov is slow at weekends; the DN1 through the Prahova valley to Sinaia is notorious for queues on Fridays and Sundays. The city buses make the short hops painless — a single ticket is valid for 90 minutes, and every Friday they are free. See getting around.

Using the layers

Switching layers off is what makes this map useful rather than decorative. A county map with hundreds of pins tells you nothing; the same map showing only the cafés, or only the pubs and wine bars, answers an actual question.

The pattern that shows up fastest is the split between the town and the mountain. The cafés, bars and restaurants crowd into the few streets around Piața Sfatului and Strada Republicii, while the ski lifts, the chalets and the hiking trails sit in their own cluster up at Poiana. That gap is the single most useful thing this map shows: an evening in the Old Town and a day on Postăvarul are two different outings, and worth planning as two.