There are these kinds of places which you might be thinking you need to travel to a foreign country in order to see them... but what happens when you find a pretty similar thing in your home country?

I bet everyone heard of the famous leaning tower of Pisa (Italy). It's impossible not to.
But in case you didn't, the tower of Pisa is amongst the famous spots of Italy where tourists from all over the world are coming just to see the tower other than in pictures and possibly take one of the popular images with their hands supporting the tower not to fall.
While the image is just an optical illusion with a cool vibe whenever you watch it again, the tower is as real as possible and even tilted at a quite scary angle if you ask me.
Sadly, I didn't get to see the tower of Pisa yet but since last week I got to visit more cities in Italy, I thought there is no better moment to share the leaning tower from Romania which is often compared with the famous one from Italy.
The one from Romania is actually in Transylvania and it's just 30 minutes away of driving from my homeplace, representing the middle point of the road that connects Sibiu with Medias - two important cities of the country.

While both of the cities are known and quite visited by tourists, The Leaning Tower of Ruși doesn't enjoy the same popularity because of its placement which makes it hard to be found if you don't use a GPS.

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The tower is quite hidden from tourists' sight since you will need to drive on a dirt path that comes off the main road, but this is usually the first sign we consider as being on the way to a location full of mystery and new things to learn about.

So while the tower has nothing to do with the greatness of the tower from Pisa but only the inclined angle caused by the landslides from nearby, I still consider that this spot should be promoted and brought to the attention of the tourists.

It's true that would be unfair to compare The Leaning Tower of Ruși with the one from Pisa because while one of them enjoys a lot of popularity and the other one doesn't, the tower of Pisa is well maintained and still promoted further even though it's hard to meet a person that never heard of this one by now.
Sadly, for decades already Romania is confronting with a big indifference coming from those who could do something for unique places like this one and it became a "normality" to see pieces of history (and not only) given to oblivion and left in ruins until the passage of time takes them away.
It's both sad and a shame at the same time because not for a few times we've got to return to locations we first discovered years ago and found them really bad, leaving them resigned that there won't be a next time anymore because most likely it will be too late already.
That's exactly the reason I always put so much dedication into writing about these spots with the hope that maybe something will be changed one day and that when people from other countries are asked about Romania they have more than just calling it the country of Dracula or associating it with Rome which is a big mistake I often heard.

So while I believe The Leaning Tower of Ruși has a lot of potential to become more known by the people, back in June when we visited it, we couldn't pass the gate because it was locked. Not to mention the piles of rubble that were destroying the minimalist landscape...

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We've only got to spend around 10-15 minutes at The Leaning Tower of Ruși trying to find new angles to shoot pictures from and reading the single panel located behind the fence that remembered us that the tower is actually part of a church dating since 1741.

The architecture of the church seemed quite familiar since it wasn't our first time getting to visit a church raised by the Saxon community but the one from Ruși was a bit more special since it represented a shelter for the locals during the fights from the area.

The passage of time is not the single thing the religious place had to face but also having the top of the bell tower collapsing, as well as the church becoming the main target during an earthquake, during the storm when the thunders had the building in their direction, and lately the landslides which also caused its leaning.

All these aspects led to the tower we can see these days but which could be a lot more interesting to be seen from the upper hills of the area or if by some chance you find the gates open and manage to approach it.

The Leaning Tower of Ruși is located in the village with the same name, being 23 km away from Sibiu on the national road DN14 which makes the connection between Sibiu and Medias. From the main road, there is a short dirt path which you will need to drive on until you reach the tower.

SEE YOU IN THE NEXT TRIP! 🗾

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