Mount Tâmpa above Brașov

Drumul Serpentinelor (the Serpentine Road), marked with a red triangle, leaves Parcul Tiberiu Brediceanu at the southern foot of the fortress walls near the old Bastionul Postăvarilor and climbs in roughly 13 tight switchbacks cut into the hillside in 1837. The path passes close to the base station of the Tâmpa cable car and the parallel stone steps of Treptele lui Gabony before both routes merge higher up, then continues past a junction with the historic Drumul Cavalerilor (the medieval Knights' Road) and an overlook near the upper switchbacks that gives the first uninterrupted view over the city. From the summit terrace, next to the television tower, the Panoramic restaurant and the ruins of the old Brasovia hill-fort, the view opens north over Brașov's old town: the steep red-tiled roofs, the dark spire of the Black Church, and the arcaded façades around Council Square sit tightly inside the medieval walls, with the flat Bârsa Depression stretching away toward the distant Carpathian ridges. Immediately behind the terrace, to the south and southwest, rises the forested bulk of the wider Postăvarul massif, of which Tâmpa itself is the outlying northern summit. Tâmpa is a limestone outcrop covered in beech and oak forest and protected as a nature reserve for its butterflies, birds and occasional bears, so the climb feels wilder than its short length and city-centre start suggest. Most hikers go up and down the same trail, though the steeper stone steps of Treptele lui Gabony offer a shorter, rougher alternative for the descent.