The Saxons arrived in southeastern Transylvania in the 12th and
13th centuries, in the area occupied by 2 counties Brasov and
Sibiu, and a small piece of Mures County. They were invited by
the Kings of Hungary to defend the eastern borders of Christian
Europe against the invaders from the west. They established
about 200 villages, and 7 main fortified towns/cities – hence
the German name for Transylvania, Siebenbuergen. Saxon is not a
written language and sounds similar to Dutch and the low German
dialects of Luxembourg. Each village has its own dialect and
villagers can immediately detect the village or area where any
Saxon speaker comes from. The houses were built in the style of
their 12-13th century western European origins. The villages
have remained unchanged in structure and largely unchanged in
size for many centuries. The villages are typically built in
line, along each side of a stream. 13th century village
structure, brought by German colonists from Moselle and Middle
Rhine regions, has been retain