To the north of the Clock Tower stands one of the most representative gothic-style structures in Transylvania, the Church on the Hill - so called because of its location on the School Hill (1,373 ft high). First mentioned in a document in 1345 and superposed on a former Roman basilica, its construction lasted almost 200 years.
Initially a Catholic church, it became the main church of the Saxon inhabitants of Sighisoara, who had shifted from Roman Catholicism to Lutheranism after the 1547 Reform.
The church was completely painted on the inside but in 1776, the majority of the old murals were destroyed, provided that exact copies would be made on parchment and reproduced later. Unfortunately, the copies were lost and the murals never reproduced. A recent restoration brought back fragments of some of the original late 15th century frescoes.
Inside the beautifully restored interior, you can admire fragments of *murals from 1483-1488, the period prior to Martin Luther's Reformation, and renaissance-style furniture. The gothic altarpiece dedicated to St Martin dates from 1520 and was painted by Johann Stoss, the son of the renowned sculptor, Veit Stoss from Nürnberg. The three wood-carved coats of arms, found in the anterooms of the side naves, belonged to Mathias Corvin and his wife, Beatrix, the Transylvanian prince Stephen Bathory of Nyir (1479-1493) and the king of Poland and Hungary, Wladislav the 3rd.
The church is reached by a covered wooden staircase known as the Scholars' Stairs. Opposite the church is the main entrance to a serene Saxon cemetery (open daily 8:00am - 8:00pm).
