Brasov is blessed with a large, well-tended park in the very heart of the city. In summer, when the flowers are in full bloom it really is a picture postcard kind of place, and is mercifully free of the dogs which blight Bucharest’s parks. There is a good children’s playground, complete with bouncy slides and bouncy castles, there is an area where old men get together for serious games of chess (don’t even think about challenging them to a game unless you are very, very good). There are two buildings of note on the edge of the park, both masterpieces which date to the end of the 19th century, when the Hungarians ruled these lands. The first, the cream and yellow building opposite the Capitol hotel, is the neoclassical Town Hall (Primaria), built from 1897-8 while the second, next to it, is the sensational Secessionist Post Office, spoilt only by the ugly Posta Romana logo that adorns the façade. On the other side of Piata Revolutiei (where a major anti-Ceausescu demonstration in November 1987 – considered the first of a chain of events that would eventually bring the dictator down, two years later – was held) is another masterpiece, the Prefecture, home to Brasov County Council.

Also have a look at the Modarom building at the corner of Stradas Republicii and B-dul Eroilor (it is the ugly round mimi-skyscraper). It still has a couple of bullet holes (deliberately preserved) from the 1989 revolution.