Transylvanian Saxon Churches Role for the Cultural Tourism Development

Romania is today improving its ways of practicing cultural tourism and the tourist infrastructure and is about to take a new strategy regarding cultural tourism activities by considering the experience of more modern countries. Romania has unique, specific possibilities to develop cultural tourism. Transylvanian villages with fortified Saxon churches give a full picture of cultural landscape of southern Transylvania. These villages are characterized by a specific system of land cultivation, a model settlement and organization of peasant households, held since the Middle Ages. The paper analyzes the Saxon churches importance for tourism development, the local legends myths and historical facts.