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50 free Transylvania trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Transylvania is a real place with a fictional reputation, and this quiz gives both their due. It starts with the geography and the names: 'beyond the forest' in medieval Latin, Erdély to Hungarians, Siebenbürgen to the Saxons who built its seven walled towns, the Carpathian arc that hems it in and the brown bears that live there. Then the cities: Cluj and the 'Napoca' the communists bolted on, Brașov's Black Church and its decade as Stalin City, Sibiu's year as European Capital of Culture, Sighișoara's clock tower and Alba Iulia's coronation cathedral. The history runs from Trajan's Dacia and King Stephen's conquest through the Saxons and Székelys, the Edict of Torda, Ottoman vassalage, Michael the Brave's short-lived union, the 1867 Compromise, the 1918 assembly at Alba Iulia, Trianon and the Second Vienna Award. Dracula gets a fair hearing: where Vlad was actually born, which principality he ruled, and why he never lived at Bran. The quiz ends with the region's oddities: a salt mine turned theme park, an underground glacier, Roman gold at Roșia Montană, chimney cake and the road Top Gear called the best in the world. Easy questions suit anyone who has heard the name; the expert tier reaches Géza II, Countess Mikes and the Sun and Moon of the Székelys. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the region, its towns and its history, and the supporting sentence is attached to each question. For the vampire side of things, see the separate Dracula and Vlad the Impaler quizzes.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The name Transylvania comes from medieval Latin and means what?
Beyond the forest
Transylvania means 'beyond the forest': the earliest reference, a Medieval Latin document of the Kingdom of Hungary from 1075, calls the region ultra silvam.
Q 02The German name for Transylvania, Siebenbürgen, refers to what?
Seven Saxon fortified towns
Siebenbürgen, 'seven fortresses', is traditionally traced to seven Saxon fortified towns such as Kronstadt, Schässburg and Bistritz; the Latin name was Septem Castra, and seven red towers mark Transylvania's coat of arms.
Q 03What is the Hungarian name for Transylvania?
Erdély
Erdély is the Hungarian name for Transylvania, first recorded in the Gesta Hungarorum around 1200; the Romanian form Ardeal derives from it.
Q 04Which mountain range forms Transylvania's natural border to the east and south?
The Carpathians
The Carpathians wall Transylvania in, with the Eastern Carpathians on the east and the Southern Carpathians on the south, while the Apuseni Mountains close it off to the west.
Q 05The mountains ringing Transylvania hold Europe's largest populations of which large animal?
Brown bears
Brown bears: Romania's mountains hold several thousand of them, the largest brown bear population in Europe outside Russia, along with big numbers of wolves and lynx.
Q 06Which city, Romania's second largest, is Transylvania's biggest?
Cluj-Napoca
Cluj-Napoca, Kolozsvár in Hungarian and Klausenburg in German, is Transylvania's largest city and Romania's second most populous after Bucharest.
Q 07Why did the communist authorities add 'Napoca' to Cluj's name in 1974?
To emphasise the city's pre-Roman roots
To emphasise the city's pre-Roman roots: Napoca was the Dacian settlement's name, kept by the Romans for their municipium, and Ceaușescu's regime revived it in 1974 to assert Daco-Roman continuity.
Q 08Which king of Hungary, patron of the Renaissance and founder of the Black Army, was born in Cluj in 1443?
Matthias Corvinus
Matthias Corvinus, born in 1443, ruled Hungary from 1458 to 1490; the name Corvinus comes from the Latin for raven, the bird on his family crest.
Q 09In 2015, Transylvania's largest city held which continental title?
European Youth Capital
The city was European Youth Capital in 2015, the first Romanian city to hold the title, and the Untold festival launched there that same summer.
Q 10Which Transylvanian city was European Capital of Culture in 2007, sharing the title with Luxembourg City?
Sibiu
Sibiu, Hermannstadt in German, shared the 2007 European Capital of Culture title with Luxembourg; the old Saxon town is famous for houses whose roof windows look like eyes.
Q 11Brașov's Black Church is claimed to be the largest Gothic church in which region?
Southeastern Europe
The Black Church is billed as the largest Gothic church in Southeastern Europe; it took its name after the great fire of 1689 blackened its walls.
Q 12Between 1950 and 1960 the city of Brașov was renamed in honour of whom?
Stalin
Brașov was called Orașul Stalin, 'Stalin City', from 1950 to 1960; its older names include the Latin Corona and the Saxon Kronstadt.
Q 13Brașov's Strada Sforii, or Rope Street, holds what distinction?
Narrowest in Romania
Rope Street is the narrowest in Romania and one of the narrowest streets in Europe, only about 1.1 to 1.3 metres wide along its 80-metre length.
Q 21Corvin Castle, one of the largest castles in Europe, stands in which Transylvanian town?
Hunedoara
Corvin Castle stands in Hunedoara; the Gothic-Renaissance fortress was largely built in the 15th century over an older fort, and legend says Vlad the Impaler was held prisoner there.
Q 22The Transylvanian Saxons began settling under which mid-12th-century Hungarian king?
Géza II
Géza II, who reigned from 1141 to 1162, invited the first settlers; despite the name, most came from the Rhineland, Flanders, the Moselle and Luxembourg rather than Saxony.
Q 23Which Romanian president, elected in 2014, is a Transylvanian Saxon?
Klaus Iohannis
Q 14Bran Castle was built by Saxons in 1377 under a privilege from which king?
Louis I of Hungary
Louis I of Hungary granted the Saxons of Brașov the privilege to build Bran Castle in 1377, guarding the pass between Transylvania and Wallachia.
Q 15Bran Castle houses a museum devoted largely to the art and furniture of which royal?
Queen Marie of Romania
The town of Brașov gave the castle to Queen Marie of Romania in 1920, and the museum shows her art and furniture; in 2006 it was returned to her grandson Dominic von Habsburg.
Q 16Did Vlad the Impaler ever live at Bran Castle, according to most historians?
No, he never lived there
No, he never lived there: historians find no record of Vlad the Impaler at Bran, and its Dracula link rests on tourism marketing rather than documents.
Q 17While exiled in Sighișoara, Vlad the Impaler's father did what, breaking a royal monopoly?
Minted his own coins
Vlad II minted his own coins at Sighișoara, a prerogative of the Hungarian kings, and issued the first document listing the town's Romanian name; his son was probably born there around 1431.
Q 18Vlad the Impaler's father was inducted in 1431 into which knightly society?
The Order of the Dragon
The Order of the Dragon, founded by King Sigismund, admitted Vlad II in 1431, earning him the byname Dracul, 'the Dragon'; Dracula means 'son of Dracul'.
Q 19Which Irish author wrote the 1897 novel that fixed Transylvania's association with vampires?
Bram Stoker
Bram Stoker, born in Dublin, published Dracula in 1897 without ever visiting Transylvania, relying on travel books and library research.
Q 20Sighișoara's 64-metre medieval landmark is what kind of structure?
A clock tower
The Clock Tower, 64 metres tall with figurines that mark the hours, guards the main gate of Sighișoara's citadel, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1999.
Klaus Iohannis, a Transylvanian Saxon, rose through the Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania and served fourteen years as a city mayor before winning the presidency in 2014.
Q 24The Székelys, a Hungarian-speaking people of eastern Transylvania, traditionally claim descent from whom?
Attila's Huns
The Székelys traditionally claim descent from Attila's Huns, a legend recorded in medieval Hungarian chronicles; in the Middle Ages they guarded the kingdom's eastern frontier as free border warriors.
Q 25On Transylvania's coat of arms, which two heavenly bodies represent the Székelys?
The Sun and the Moon
The Sun and the Moon stand for the Székelys on the arms, beside the black eagle of the Hungarian nobility; together the symbols represent Transylvania's privileged nations.
Q 26The first known recipe for kürtőskalács, the Székely 'chimney cake', appears in a 1784 cookbook by whom?
Countess Mária Mikes
Countess Mária Mikes of Zabola wrote down the first known kürtőskalács recipe in her 1784 manuscript cookbook; the cake is baked on a spit and is a street-food staple in Hungary and Romania.
Q 27The 1568 Edict of Torda is celebrated as Christian Europe's first legal guarantee of what?
Freedom of religion
The Edict of Torda, issued under John Sigismund in 1568, guaranteed freedom of religion for Catholics, Lutherans, Calvinists and Unitarians, while the Orthodox were merely tolerated.
Q 28Which Transylvanian prince also became King of Poland?
Stephen Báthory
Stephen Báthory, ruler of Transylvania from 1571, was elected King of Poland in 1576 and reigned there until his death in 1586.
Q 29For most of the 16th and 17th centuries, Transylvania was a vassal principality of which power?
The Ottomans
The Ottomans held Transylvania as a tribute-paying vassal from the 1540s until the Habsburgs took control after 1687, a possession confirmed by the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699.
Q 30Which Wallachian voivode briefly united Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania under his rule in 1600?
Michael the Brave
Michael the Brave ruled all three principalities for only a few months in 1600; he lost Transylvania that September and was murdered in August 1601 on the orders of General Giorgio Basta.