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
The earliest reference is a 1078 Hungarian document calling it 'ultra silvam'.
Q 02The German name for Transylvania, Siebenbürgen, refers to what?
Seven Saxon fortified towns
The Latin equivalent was Septem Castra; the seven red towers still appear on the region's coat of arms.
Q 03What is the Hungarian name for Transylvania, from which the Romanian 'Ardeal' derives?
Erdély
It was first recorded in the 12th-century Gesta Hungarorum as Erdeuleu, from a Hungarian phrase with the same meaning.
Q 04Which mountain range forms Transylvania's natural border to the east and south?
The Carpathians
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
The range also has the continent's biggest concentrations of wolves, chamois and lynx.
Q 06Which city, Romania's second largest, is Transylvania's biggest?
Cluj-Napoca
Its Hungarian name is Kolozsvár and its German name Klausenburg; 'Napoca' was added in 1974 to stress its pre-Roman roots.
Q 07Why did the communist authorities add 'Napoca' to Cluj's name in 1974?
To emphasise the city's pre-Roman roots
Napoca was the Roman-era name of the settlement.
Q 08Which king of Hungary, patron of the Renaissance and founder of the Black Army, was born in Cluj in 1443?
Matthias Corvinus
His nickname 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
It was named European City of Sport in 2018, and Untold, Romania's biggest music festival, began there in 2015.
Q 10Which Transylvanian city was European Capital of Culture in 2007, sharing the title with Luxembourg City?
Sibiu
Known in German as Hermannstadt, it was the chief town of the Transylvanian Saxons and 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 city, once the Saxon Kronstadt, was almost entirely destroyed by fire in 1689.
Q 12Between 1950 and 1960 the city of Brașov was renamed in honour of whom?
Stalin
Its other historic names include the Latin Corona and the Saxon Kronstadt.
Q 13Brașov's Strada Sforii, or Rope Street, holds what distinction?
Narrowest in Romania
Brașov also sits at the foot of Mount Tâmpa and is a base for the ski resort of Poiana Brașov.
Q 21Corvin Castle, one of the largest castles in Europe, stands in which Transylvanian town?
Hunedoara
Tourists are told Vlad the Impaler was once held prisoner within its walls.
Q 22The Transylvanian Saxons began settling under which mid-12th-century Hungarian king?
Géza II
Despite the name, most came from Luxembourg, Flanders and the Moselle rather than Saxony.
Q 23Which Romanian president, elected in 2014, is a Transylvanian Saxon?
Klaus Iohannis
He rose through the Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania and was a long-serving city mayor.
Q 14Bran Castle was built by Saxons in 1377 under a privilege from which king?
Louis I of Hungary
Most historians agree Vlad the Impaler never lived there; the castle has only tangential links to him.
Q 15Bran Castle houses a museum devoted largely to the art and furniture of which royal?
Queen Marie of Romania
The Saxons of Brașov gave the castle to the royal family after 1920; it was returned to Marie's descendants in 2006.
Q 16Did Vlad the Impaler ever live at Bran Castle, according to most historians?
No, he never lived there
There is no evidence the novel's author even knew the castle existed.
Q 17While exiled in Sighișoara, Vlad the Impaler's father Vlad Dracul did what, breaking a royal monopoly?
Minted his own coins
He also issued the first document listing the town's Romanian name; his son is thought to have been born there in the early 1430s.
Q 18Vlad the Impaler's byname 'Dracula' derives from his father's membership of which knightly society?
The Order of the Dragon
Vlad Dracul means 'Vlad the Dragon'; the son ruled the neighbouring principality of Wallachia three separate times.
Q 19Which Irish author wrote the 1897 novel that fixed Transylvania's association with vampires?
Bram Stoker
He never visited the region; the Castlevania games and Hotel Transylvania films play on the same association.
Q 20Sighișoara's 64-metre landmark, built in the 13th century, is what kind of structure?
A clock tower
The citadel is one of the few fortified medieval towns in Eastern Europe still inhabited, and Vlad the Impaler is thought to have been born there.
Q 24The Székelys, a Hungarian-speaking people of eastern Transylvania, traditionally claim descent from whom?
Attila's Huns
In the Middle Ages they guarded the Kingdom of Hungary's eastern border against Turkish raids.
Q 25On Transylvania's coat of arms, which two heavenly bodies represent the Székelys?
The Sun and the Moon
The eagle stands for the Hungarians and the seven towers for the Saxon cities.
Q 26The first known recipe for kürtőskalács, the Székely 'chimney cake', appears in a 1784 cookbook by whom?
Countess Mária Mikes
The dessert has since become a street-food staple across Hungary and Romania.
Q 27The 1568 Edict of Torda is celebrated as Christian Europe's first legal guarantee of what?
Freedom of religion
It covered Lutherans, Calvinists, Unitarians and Catholics; the Orthodox were merely 'tolerated'.
Q 28Which Transylvanian prince also became King of Poland?
Stephen Báthory
The principality's golden age came later under Bethlen and George I Rákóczi.
Q 29For most of the 16th and 17th centuries, Transylvania was a vassal principality of which power?
The Ottomans
It had dual suzerainty, Turkish and Habsburg, before the Habsburgs took full control in the 1690s.
Q 30Which Wallachian voivode briefly united Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania under his rule in 1600?
Michael the Brave
The union lasted about a year and a half before he was murdered by agents of General Giorgio Basta.