3341 ROMANIA (Braşov) - Prejmer fortified church - part of Villages with Fortified Churches in Transylvania (UNESCO WHS)

Located in Burzenland, Prejmer fortified church was initially Roman Catholic, but became Lutheran following the Reformation. Around 1211, King Andrew II of Hungary permitted the Germanic Teutonic Knights to settle around Prejmer, where they began constructing a church in 1218, in Gothic style. They were responsible for the Greek cross plan, the only one of its kind in Transylvania, but found in a few churches in northeast Germany. Following their expulsion in 1225, the Cistercians, who took over in 1240, finished the church.

3298 ROMANIA (Alba) - Câlnic Citadel - part of Villages with Fortified Churches in Transylvania (UNESCO WHS)

The Câlnic Citadel began around 1270 as a residence for a Graf (Chyl de Kelling, whose family gave the village its German name), one of the last such to be built in Transylvania. The strong parallelepiped structure, with a ground floor and three floors for living space, came to be known as the Siegfried tower. Subsequent, frequent Ottoman attacks led the keep to be fortified with a defensive level and surrounded by a massive wall. The oval precinct around the keep was fitted with a guard tower to the south and a gate tower to the north. The structure was surrounded by a water-filled moat, with access only by drawbridge.

ROMANIA - Villages with Fortified Churches in Transylvania (UNESCO WHS)

In the 12th and 13th centuries, simultaneous with the advancement of the Kingdom of Hungary's border to the east and south-eastern Transylvania, until its stabilization along the Carpathians, Hungarian kings encouraged Germans and Székelys to colonize the areas newly conquered, in essence for economic and military reasons. The German colonists were named Transylvanian Saxons, despite the fact that most of them came from the western Holy Roman Empire. The political, economic and social influence exercised by them in the last eight centuries in Transylvania was a major and beneficial one. Unfortunately after the WWII, but especially after the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, many members of this community emigrated to Germany.

2080-2083 ROMANIA (Braşov) - Sânpetru and its fortified church

2080 Sânpetru - Aerial view (1994)

In 12th and 13th centuries, kings of Hungary colonized Transylvania with Germans, to defend the new southeastern border of the kingdom but also to develope the area. After 1211, they built in Burzenland, along a strategic road leading to the Buţii Pass, 14 settlements, including Sânpetru (Petersberg). Also at that time, King Andrew II of Hungary invited the Teutonic Knights to settle and defend the Burzenland. Even if in 1225 the king expelled the Order from the area, alarmed by their rapidly expanding power, the colonists remained, and the settlement lasted until the present.

2081 Sânpetru - The interior of
the evangelical church

The colonists were named Transylvanian Saxons, but actually they came primarily from the Rhine Valley. The mainly three arguments are the language (a Franconian dialect), the names of the settlements (for instance are two Petersberg near to Trier), and the plan of the settlement. It is noteworthy that the settlers founded the village along the road above mentioned, with two almost parallel streets (the main street - Vordergasse, and the cemetery street - Hintergasse) between 1211-1225, the feature that lasts until today.

2082 Sânpetru - A frescoe from the chapel of the fortified church

In the center of the commune is a fortified church, used by locals as a refuge in case of danger. The tradition relates the beginning of the construction of the basilica to the presence of the Teutonic Knights and the ending with to the Cistercian monks who took over the construction site after the knights were banished; most probably the church was built at the beginning of the 14th century. After the devastating Turkish invasion in 1432, the community built an 8m high defensive wall fortified with 5 towers and a water trench.

2083 An anatolian carpet that belonged to the Lutheran Church,
now in the Black Church in Brasov

The Romanesque basilica was dismantled in 1794, after the belfry had collapsed over the church. The three nave hall church built later in a neoclassic style has the choir orientated towards the west. The ceiling of the church is supported by four pairs of octagonal pillars and the aisles were provided with lofts. The belfry placed on the east was built in 1817. To the curtain wall was annexed a 13th century long and narrow building with successive rooms which functioned as cells for the Cistercian monks. Some of them preserved traces of paintings.

1847 ROMANIA (Sibiu) - Mălâncrav fortified church

The history of Mălâncrav fortified church, as also of the commune, is related to the Apafi family, upper class noble landowners from Transylvania . Because it was a latifundium placed in the midst of the Transylvanian Saxon Seats of Schassburg (Sighişoara), Mediasch (Mediaş) and Grossschenk (Cincu), it was assigned by the Hungarian king to the Apafi family. The first acknowledgment of Mălâncrav (German: Malmkrog) dates from the 14th century in a series of documents related to some disputes over property, which will continue until the 18th century.

1835 ROMANIA (Braşov) - Viscri fortified church - part of Villages with Fortified Churches in Transylvania (UNESCO WHS)

Located on a side road away from the national road that links Braşov and Sighişoara, the village of Viscri (Deutschweisskirch) is home to the Viscri fortified church, initially Roman Catholic, and following the Reformation Lutheran.  The weisskirch (white church) in the village refers to a chapel built by the Székely inhabitants who lived there prior to the Saxons' arrival between 1141 and 1162. In the 13th century, the Saxons built a Romanesque hall church that integrated the chapel but also introduced changes.

1833 ROMANIA (Sibiu) - Hosman fortified church

Located between the cities of Sibiu and Agnita, on the Hârtibaciu Valley, Hosman (German: Holzmengen) is a typical Transylvanian Saxon village, which hiding, as also the neighboring villages, one of the last authentic medieval landscapes in Europe: flowering meadows, forests and pastures spread across the gentle hills, traditional old Transylvanian Saxon houses, an old mill with a bakery and a blacksmithing, and the fortified church which dominates panorama projected on a always exchanger background offered by the Făgăraş Mountains.

1815 ROMANIA (Sibiu) - Moşna fortified church

Located to the Târnavelor Plateau, on the Moșna Valley, Moşna (German: Meschen) was attested documentary in 1283 as a free commune in Wine Country, under the name Musyna. The village hearth retains even today the urban planning and architectural characteristics of the Transylvanian Saxon colonists who founded it. Unfortunately, as in all of Transylvania, after WWII, the Transylvanian Saxons were deported or left the area in large numbers.

0339 ROMANIA (Sibiu) - Biertan fortified church - part of Villages with Fortified Churches in Transylvania (UNESCO WHS)

0339 Biertan Fortified Church

Biertan (Birthälm) was one of the first settlements of the Transylvanian Saxons, and received the right to organize a market, placing it in competition with Mediaş and Moşna; it was also the see of the Saxon Lutheran Church from 1572 to 1867. Built in the center of the town, on a hill (Hill of Berth), in Late Gothic style with Renaissance touches, Biertan fortified church was the last one erected in this style in Transylvania, between 1486 and 1524. It was limited by terrain configuration, the choir, 18m long, vaulted with a network of ribs, being built just after the old building ships were replaced by three ships of equal height.