Welcome to Piața Mică, also known as the Small Square. If the Great Square was where Sibiu showed off its power, this cosier square was where the city did its work. Look around at the arcades, with their covered walkways along the ground floors. For centuries, these were workshops, shops, and guild premises, where craftsmen made things, sold them, and built the trades that kept Sibiu running. And there is a lovely detail connected to that world of craftsmen. The story goes that somewhere near this square stood a wooden post where young blacksmiths left their mark when their apprenticeships were finished. Before leaving town to seek their fortune, each would forge a nail by hand and hammer it into the post. It was part calling card, part farewell, and part good-luck charm. Over time, the post became known as the tree of iron. But much of what you are seeing was not always here. For centuries, buildings actually stood across the middle of the square, including a Lutheran church and a long covered passage. The passage became notorious for rubbish, darkness, and unpleasant smells, and in the nineteenth century, the city finally cleared the old structures away. The open space in front of you is therefore partly the result of demolishing a piece of the older city. And there was a darker side to life here, too. In the mid-eighteenth century, the city moved its so-called lunatics’ cage from the Great Square to Piața Mică. Now, I know the name sounds morbid, but it was not simply a place for mentally ill people. It was used to confine people who disturbed the peace at night and then display them publicly during the day. And before we leave, I want you to look at the buildings' roofs here. Do you see those narrow openings peering down from the tiles? Those are Sibiu’s famous eyes. Now, they are actually dormers, meaning vents built into the attics where the Saxon households stored their meat, their cheese, and their grain. The narrow openings let air flow through so the food would not spoil. And yet, once you have walked a while beneath hundreds of these slitted openings, all angled down toward you, you cannot shake the feeling that the city is quietly watching. Not so long ago, in the largest wave of protests this country had seen, a citizens' movement against corruption took these very eyes as its symbol. Their name says it all. Vă vedem din Sibiu, meaning we see you from Sibiu. The message to those in power was as simple and as old as the city itself. We are watching you. The symbol spread so far that people held it up in Berlin, Paris, and London. A four-hundred-year-old roof vent had become a warning to the powerful, and the watchful city was watching once more. From here, follow the map to a building on this square, marked by a black bear.