Brasov is home to the largest Gothic temple from Istanbul to Vienna and the main Lutheran cathedral of this style in Romania. It was built in the 14th century on the parish priest Thomas Sander’s initiative and bore the name of Saint Mary. Construction lasted about a century and saw many Transylvanian leaders. Still, it owes its Gothic style to the Saxons, its very first builders. As a result of the Austrian invasion and a great fire at the end of the 17th century, its walls turned black, and it got its current name, the Black Church. Its only bell tower houses the largest bell in Romania, weighing 6 tons.

The church clock draws particular attention. It is a dial with two circles: the outer one depicts four human figures with a lion, an eagle, a calf, and an angel, guards of the four corners around God’s Throne, and four boundaries of Paradise. On the hands of the clock, there are images of the moon and the sun.

On the north side of the church, there is an unusual sculpture of a falling boy. Legend has it that the builder who erected the temple had a very talented apprentice. The boy kept pointing out the builder’s mistakes, which made the latter angry. He asked the boy to pick something from the edge of the roof and threw him down. To hide his crime, he immured the boy’s body in the temple, and soon after, killed himself. During the restoration in the mid-20th century, all the statues on the church roof were replaced with replicas. The original statues are kept inside.

The interior decoration features the most extensive collection of oriental rugs in Europe. It consists of 156 items of the 15th-18th centuries, which have perfectly preserved their original appearance. Most of the collection was donated by Saxon traders, as evidenced by the inscriptions on some rugs.

The cathedral’s crown jewel is the 4,000-pipe organ by the German master Karl Buchholz. It is the largest organ of those times in Europe. Installed in 1839, it is used not only for worship: in summer, organ concerts are regularly held in the temple.