Villages with fortified churches in Transylvania
Monday, 27 March 2023 - 11:00 am (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: European Union / Europäische Union General , UNESCO World Heritage
Reading Time: 4 minutes
Fortified church of Prejmer © Neighbor’s goat/cc-by-sa-3.0-ro
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The south-eastern
Transylvania region in
Romania currently has one of the highest numbers of existing fortified churches from the 13th to 16th centuries. It has more than 150 well preserved
fortified churches of a great variety of architectural styles (out of an original 300 fortified churches).
Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site , Villages with Fortified Churches in Transylvania are seven villages (six Saxon and one Székely ) founded by the Transylvanian Saxons . They are dominated by fortified churches and characterized by a specific settlement pattern that has been preserved since the Late Middle Ages .
Fortified church of Valea Viilor © Țetcu Mircea Rareș/cc-by-sa-3.0-ro
The Saxon villages of
Transylvania appeared in the twelfth century when the
Kings of Hungary settled German colonists in the area. They had a special status among nations in the province and their civilisation managed to survive and thrive, forming a very strong community of farmers, artisans and merchants. Being situated in a region constantly under the threat of the
Ottoman and
Tatar invasions, they built fortifications of different sizes. The most important towns were fully fortified, and the smaller communities created fortifications centered on the church, where they added defensive towers and storehouses to keep their most valuable goods and to help them withstand long sieges.
The seven villages listed as a
UNESCO World Heritage Site are:
Biertan ,
Câlnic ,
Dârjiu ,
Prejmer ,
Saschiz ,
Valea Viilor and
Viscri .
Read more on
UNESCO.org – Villages with Fortified Churches in Transylvania ,
List of fortified churches in Transylvania and
Wikipedia Villages with fortified churches in Transylvania (
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