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Magister Seven is the place where leisure and business tourism meet history
Magister Seven: A holiday on the wings of history
Situated at the highest point on the small hill that brings you to the centre of Sibiu and very close to the Council Tower, Magister Seven stands guard with its imposing gate on Avram Iancu street. Once the gate is opened, it immediately reveals the charm, elegance and hospitality of the place.
We invite you to step inside a place filled with history that was built centuries ago by the head of the goldsmiths’ guild, Thomas Stihn, which later became the home of the mayor of the city, Magister Civitas Tobias Sifft.
The elements of an exceptional historical value and the details that have endured over time remind us of an unforgettable and distant era.
The Renaissance style entrance portal for our guests bears the mark of the year in which the house was built, namely 1570, as well as the initials of its first owner, the goldsmith Thomas Stihn. The interior courtyard unveils the three sections of the building, each from a different era with its own specific architectural elements that make up the unique charm of Magister Seven: the oldest of the three, dating from the 16th century, building A reflects the history of the Gothic period and the Renaissance; the Western and Northern part, building B, stands as a witness of the 18th century Baroque period; building C was designed by architects Franz Szalogh and Josef Schermann in 1894.
Today: Magister Seven
The imposing building with seven lives, bearing the number 7 on its historically charged gate on Avram Iancu street, is presently classified as a national historical monument and it is one of the landmark buildings of the city of Sibiu.
Since its transformation into an oasis of peace and relaxation providing an unique experience, the building remains a reflection of the passage of time by means of its extraordinary architectural elements: here you can find one of the oldest Baroque staircases in the entire city dating back to the first half of the 18th century, while the rooms have kept their Baroque interior doors whose closing mechanisms turn them into genuine works of art. These unique elements with a contemporary twist turn the entire interior design of the building into a place of discovery, a time capsule of architectural styles.
Magister Seven is the place where leisure and business tourism meet history through subtle notes of luxury that merge with the charm of worlds from the past.
Once upon a time: A building with seven lives
The building that was renovated using elements of an exceptional elegance tells the story of seven lives. Seven lives representative of the history of Sibiu, from seven different eras and with seven architectural styles, are unveiled in this graceful place.
The foundations of the building were laid during the 14th century and its first life was represented by the fortification walls of the second enclosure of the city of Sibiu, while the southern part of building B is considered to be the remains of an old fortification tower of the Medieval period.
Its second life began with the creation of a connection between the second and the third fortification walls, with an octagonal tower on the neighbouring plot. It is believed that there were two initial nuclei on the plot of the house, building A and building B built in the 15th century: the first nucelus, oriented towards the present-day Avram Iancu Street, and the second one, oriented towards the side courtyard. The orientation of the second nucleus was influenced by the fact that there once was a passage between house no. 26 in the Small Square and house no. 7 on Avram Iancu Street, which connected the Large Square to the Goldsmiths’ Square. This passage probably created a connection between the Large Square and the Small Square and it ended in the courtyard of house no. 10 located in the Goldsmiths’ Square. It is believed that the highest room in the current basement of the building could be either a tower or a bastion of the second wall of the fortification of Sibiu.
The third life stage also marked the reconstruction of the house and the re-emergence of the place as we know it today. Following a fire in 1579, its owner at that time, goldsmith Thomas Stihn, rebuilt the house by adding the front rooms of the ground floor and second floor of building A, the ground floor of building B, and fused the two buildings to the former fortification wall.
The fourth life stage of the house was completed by constructing building B with Baroque spaces and vaulted ceilings, a ground floor with two levels and a building A with a new upper floor. The stairwells were built at the same time and are today considered to be masterpieces of architecture.
Between 1850 and 1894, the balustrades of the stairwell were added, which are now also considered to be remarkable jewels of the past, as well as building C, stables and sheds that marked the fifth stage in the life of Magister Seven.
The following period between 1894 and 1919 marked the transformation of building C into service accommodation for the servants of the owners’ family and 1950 was the moment when the owners subdivided the building to tenants, ending the sixth life stage of the building.
Its last life, spanning from 1950 to 2023, includes the socialist, post communist and present period and is the one that has inspired the contemporary redesign of the space, turning it into a place of sensory experiences that interweaves history with elegance and contemporaneity.
Thus, we invite you to let yourself be carried away by the grace and history of Magister Seven, making your stay a delightful one.
