In the medieval period highly distinctive styles of architecture developed in remote Transylvania, Moldavia and Maramures. This lecture illustrates the fine Gothic churches that the Saxon settlers built in Transylvania and survive in their elegant towns and, uniquely, behind formidable fortifications in their villages. It depicts the ‘Painted Monasteries’ of Moldavia, famous for their frescoes that stem from the Orthodox Byzantine tradition, and cover the outside walls of the churches, still maintaining their wonderfully vivid colour and details in their lovely architectural ensembles. There is a mention, too, of the remarkable wooden churches of the rural villages of Maramures.  All this is set in the context of Romania’s landscape and history.