The stairway was built in 1642 to protect schoolchildren and churchgoers from rain and snow on their way up the hill. It originally had some 300 steps; today about 175 remain, sheltered under a long wooden gallery that frames the light falling between the beams.
At the top stand the Church on the Hill, the old German cemetery and the Joseph Haltrich High School, whose students still use the stairs today.
Take your time on the way up: the steps are uneven, and the view back down the gallery is one of the best photographs in Sighișoara.
