The Stairs’ Tower (Turnul Scărilor) is one of the oldest surviving buildings in Sibiu, marking a former gateway through the city’s earliest fortified enclosure beside Albert Huet Square.
Built in the between 1191 and 1224, the tower was one of three entrances through the first defensive ring around the early settlement. Its present form dates mainly from a rebuilding in 1542, when the older gateway was transformed into the massive brick structure seen today. The vaulted passage through the ground floor still leads directly to the stairs descending from the Upper Town toward the Lower Town, preserving the tower’s original role as a connection between the two levels of the medieval city.
A second arched passage opens from the side of the tower toward the Busswinkel, or Expiation Corner, beneath the curved wall bordering the parish garden. The tower itself is relatively low and broad compared with Sibiu’s later defensive towers, with a single upper floor above the gateway and a steep tiled roof. That roof was altered during the 19th century before being restored to a form closer to the original during renovation work in 2007.
The upper floor has another unusual connection with Sibiu’s craft traditions, serving as a summer residence for traveling journeymen who returned to the city in the early 2000s. Their presence revived an older tradition of young craftsmen traveling for several years to gain experience in their trades, and the tower became part of the modern Journeymen’s House initiative established in this corner of Huet Square.
