Fortified church of Biertan

Fortified church of Biertan Biserica fortificată din Biertan
UNESCO world heritage
Fortified church of Biertan, view from the southeast
National territory:	Romania
Type:	Culture
Criteria :	(iv)
Reference No .:	596
UNESCO region :	Europe and North America
History of enrollment
Enrollment:	1993  (session 17)
Extension:	1999 (session 23)

The fortified church of Biertan ( romanian Biserica din Fortificata Biertan ) is a late Gothic fortified church in Biertan , Sibiu county , in the historical landscape of Transylvania in today's Romania . It was built by the Transylvanian Saxons at the end of the 15th century ; as a Roman Catholic Church at that time , it was consecrated to Mary . An inscription above the triumphal arch with the year 1522 may refer to the completion of the church building.

After the Biertan pastor Lukas Unglerus (1526–1600) was elected bishop of the Evangelical Church in 1572, the church became the bishopric of the Evangelical Church AB and remained the spiritual center of the Transylvanian Saxons until the bishopric was moved in 1867. The fortified church has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993 .

Building history

Isometric drawing of the fortified church after Hermann Fabini

The town of Biertan was probably founded between 1224 and 1283. It is located on Königsboden in the area of ​​the two chairs of Mediasch and Schelk . Around 1315 this region obtained the rights laid down in the Golden Charter (1224) and developed into an important market place.

A church, probably in the Romanesque style , was first mentioned in 1402. With the economic upturn, construction activity also increased on site. In the last decade of the 15th century, construction of the late Gothic three-aisled hall church began , which is still standing today. During the Kuruzenkrieg (1703-1711) the church was looted. When earthquakes of Vrancea in 1977 the complex was damaged and restored in the sequence 1983-1989.

In 1993 the place Biertan and its fortified church were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site; In 1999 six more places with fortified churches were added. The fortified church is also listed in Romania as a monument istoric on the list of the Romanian Ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs.

Building description

Fortification and towers

Plan of the fortified church

Mausoleum tower and middle wall ring, view from the south

Fortifications had to be built in order to exercise the rights of defense granted by the king. Since fortifying the entire town would not only have overwhelmed the residents financially, but also would not have been enough to defend such an extensive fortification, only the church was fortified - as is often the case in Transylvania.

The fortified church in Biertan has three walls with a total of nine towers. The inner wall ring with four towers dates from the 14th century. The middle ring was built together with the new church and has a number of reinforcing arches. The outer wall ring was built in the 16th and 17th centuries. As is clearly visible on the town hall tower, for example, the difference in height between the inner and middle wall ring is up to 7 m in some cases; the wall rings thus contribute significantly to the stability of the subsoil. Six towers have a pyramid roof (hour tower, bell tower, mausoleum tower, Catholic tower, speck tower, entrance tower), two towers have a pent roof (town hall tower, weaver tower). A bastion in the inner ring bears the so-called "divorce house".

Inner wall ring

The bastion in the west of the inner wall ring, the town hall tower , takes its name from the town hall that was previously housed here. Its tower is close to the church. Its upper floor can be reached through a small door at ground level from the inner wall ring. The council chamber, which is lavishly decorated with ornaments, is located here. The foundations of the three-story gate tower connect the middle and inner curtain wall. Together with the gate tower to the south, the town hall tower used to form the entrance to the central courtyard. The sliding blocks for the drop gate can still be seen on the south side.

The hour tower in the northwest, with its barrel-vaulted passage, served as a gateway to the inner fortifications. The sliding channels of a portcullis have been preserved on the pillars of the western archway . The four-storey building has a wooden battlement and parapets. The clock is in a turret above the pyramid-shaped roof. The movement bears the inscription "Josef Roth - Uhrmacher - Kronstadt 1883". There are dials on three sides of the clock tower.

In the far north of the inner wall ring is the bell tower , which is the only tower built entirely from wood. The load-bearing wooden structure is paneled with vertical boards; the roof is covered with wooden shingles.

The mausoleum tower is located further northeast in the wall ring . Its three floors are equipped with loopholes. The tower has a wooden battlement and a pyramid roof. A small stair tower on the south side leads to the upper floors. Since 1913, the grave slabs and epitaphs of the bishops and dignitaries who were once buried in the church have been attached to the inner walls of the first floor. The grave slab of a communal crypt is embedded in the floor in the middle of the room.

In the south-east there is a bastion with the so-called "divorce house" , which served to reconcile quarreling couples by keeping the couple in a small space until a decision about their relationship was made.

The “Catholic Tower” in the far south was used by the few Transylvanian Saxons who had retained the Catholic denomination. Inside there is a small chapel (approx. 1520–1530), which is richly decorated with frescoes.

Middle wall ring

The entrance to the castle interior, covered by buttresses, runs along the wall between the middle and inner wall ring. The town hall tower connects the inner and the middle wall ring as a gateway, the access path then leads through the Speckturm in the northwest into the outer wall ring.

Outer wall ring

The outer wall ring is accessible in the south through the southern gate tower . In the west is the weaver tower . From the gatehouse in the northwest of the outer wall ring, a staircase that is partly roofed with wooden shingles offers direct access to the inner wall ring, which it reaches west of the bell tower.

church

View from the south

Central nave, triumphal arch with building inscription and "fool's consoles", choir

Central nave and west gallery

The church is located on the top of the mountain plateau, which rises about 20 m above the valley of a stream east of the castle. It rests on a base cornice made of hewn limestone. Stepped buttresses support the walls of the choir and nave from the outside. Due to the limited space available on the plateau, the floor plan of the building is almost square: with a height of 16 m and an interior width of 20 m, the nave is only 26 m long. The 18 m long, narrow choir of the church has a polygonal 5/8 end. Remains of a fortified floor with battlement and parapet are located above the choir.

The nave is covered with a gable roof made of plain tiles; to the west, a steep forehead closes off the roof. The choir is also covered with a gable roof, the sacristy with a tied roof .

Stair towers are attached to the outside of the western north and south façades. A staircase in the north tower leads from the outside to the organ gallery and the roof structure, the south tower leads up from the inside of the church. The sacristy adjoins the north side of the choir and is accessible from the inside through a door in the north wall of the choir. In the interior of the sacristy, in the east wall, there is access to a small stair tower attached to the outside.

The choir and the two-story sacristy have reticulated vaults . The four-bay nave, consisting of three naves of almost the same height, is covered by a star vault, the vault ribs (made of stucco ) converge without keystones. Three octagonal pairs of pillars support the vault, the ribs of which rest on corbels on the side walls . The vaulted areas between the brown-painted vaulted ribs in the choir, nave and sacristy, which are subdivided with white joints, have additionally painted fire tongue motifs and green pointed rays in the choir.

On the triumphal arch, two colored consoles are designed as fools' heads, whose bodies are painted on the walls. On the wall of the triumphal arch there is a label with an inscription in Gothic minuscule : anno natalis Domini n [ost] ri 1522 , which could indicate the completion of the building. Underneath, a longer (now restored) inscription commemorates “Herr baccalaureus Johannes”, who in his will had ordered a foundation for the benefit of the church. To the left of the inscription you can see the coat of arms of the city of Medias , on the right another coat of arms, perhaps a guild coat of arms.

Donor inscription on the triumphal arch:

" Erecta est hec edis sacra ac instituta impendijs venerabilis / do [min] i baccalaurij iohan [n] is qui tum parochiani fungebatur munere / quem tandem eiusdem nepos magister lucas subsecutus, eandem ex / sua legatione testamentali finire per industriam iacobi. Cementarij curavit. "

“This holy place was built at the expense and through the efforts of the venerable baccalaureus Johannes, who at that time held the office of Parochus, followed by his nephew, Magister Lucas, who struggled to complete the work on the basis of the testamentary orders, as well through the hard work of the bricklayer Jakob (the stone mason), citizen of Sibiu. "

The oldest grave slab in the mausoleum tower today bears the letters "IO", which can also be found on a coat of arms on the main altar and on the sacristy door. Müller (1857) and Salzer (1881) both assign these letters to the pleban (pastor) Johannes († 1526). In this way, Pastor Johannes proves to be an important donor and promoter of the construction and decoration of the Biertan church.

In the second half of the 18th century, during the Rococo period , a stone-walled organ loft was built in the west. There are three high, ogival windows in the north and south walls and two in the west wall. A third window in the middle of the west wall was bricked up when the organ gallery was built. Stone walkways divide the nave windows into two or three sections. The arched fields are structured by tracery with quatrefoil and fish bubble motifs over clover leaf arches. They are glazed with green and yellow, used in lead webs slugs .

The building ground rises towards the choir. Therefore the choir is three steps higher than the nave. Here, too, belt ribs without keystones form a net vault that rests on the side of the consoles. In the polygonal end of the choir there are three, in the south wall two additional windows, divided into three by bridges. Here, too, late Gothic tracery with quatrefoils and fish bubbles over three-pass arches structure the high and narrow windows.

In the entire vault catch tie rod to push on, particularly dense and in multiple planes, the anchor grid is drawn in the sanctuary.

Portals

West portal. Drawing after Salzer (1881), p. 785

The double-door west portal with its rich profile (Gothic bar mount) and the cantilever arch with central post is one of the most important late Gothic architectural sculptures in Transylvania. The coats of arms of the Hungarian King Wladislaw II Jagiello (1490 - 1510) and the voivod Johann Zápolya (1510 - 1516) above the portal indicate a time between 1510 and 1516. The year 1524 is notched in the field above the left portal. Two medallions to the right and left of the two coats of arms show an oath hand and a six-pointed star with a crescent moon. On the empty console on the central pillar there was probably a statue, perhaps a representation of the church patron Mary. The opposite north and south portals in the Renaissance style have profiled door frames and are bordered by an arabesque band. At the top it closes off a multi-tiered cornice. The north portal of the nave also shows Renaissance forms. A relief of palmettes, wavy tendrils and stylized rosettes adorn the door frame.

sacristy

The basement of the sacristy has a groin vault; In the east wall, a spiral staircase leads up to the small stair tower attached to the outside. The upper floor is vaulted with a barrel vault. On both floors there are two pointed arched windows with simple tracery.

Interior

Biertan Altar

→ Main article : Biertan Altar

Biertan Altar

pulpit

Choir stalls

In the choir of the church there is a late Gothic winged altar . When open, the feast day page shows 18 panels with depictions of the life of the Virgin Mary and a crucifixion scene in the central shrine. The (closed) weekday page has another 10 panels. The paintings are probably from four different masters from the 15th and 16th centuries.

pulpit

The sandstone pulpit on the southeastern pillar consists of several parts. Three reliefs on the pulpit show scenes from the life of Jesus: the blessing of Mary, crucifixion and Jesus on the Mount of Olives. Two other surfaces are decorated with tracery. The year 1596 is engraved in the base of the pulpit. A baroque, richly carved and colored sound cover with gilding crowns the pulpit, which can be dated to 1754.

Baptismal font

The Gothic sandstone baptismal font is dated to the 16th century. The inside of the chalice-shaped basin is provided with a copper bowl with a baroque lid. The foot of the baptismal font is sunk into the wooden floor and is not visible today.

Stalls

In the interior there are five medieval chairs (2 choir stalls and 3 chairs in the nave) made of carved limewood, which are decorated with elaborate inlays . The year 1514 is preserved on one of the two choir stalls and thus gives an indication of the date of the work. The Schäßburg master carpenter Johannes Reychmut is said to have made the chairs between 1514 and 1523.

organ

The organ on the west gallery was built in 1833 by the Viennese organ builder Carl Hess. In 1994 it was restored by Hermann Binder, an organ builder from Sibiu, and in 2005 it was repaired again by Ferdinand Stemmer ( Honigberg organ workshop ), adding missing reeds (bassoon 16 ′ and trombone 16 ′). The instrument is fully playable.

Today's disposition of the Biertan organ is as follows:

I Manual C– Bourdon 16 ′ Principal 8th' Hollow flute 8th' Salicional 8th' octave 4 ′ Flauto 4 ′ Flauto 2 2/3 ′ Super octave 2 ′ Forest flute 2 ′ Fifth 1 1/3 ′ Octavin 1' Fifth 2/3 ′ Trumpet 8th'

II Manual C– Principal 8th' Flauto 8 '(bass / treble) viola 8th' Unda maris 8th' octave 4 ′ Fugara 4 ′ Flauto 4 ′ Violini 2 ' bassoon 16 ′

Pedal C– Violon 16 ′ Sub-bass 16 ′ Principal bass 8th' cello 8th' Octave bass 4 ′ trombone 16 ′

Register and game action are mechanical.

Guild flags and carpets

The interior of the church also includes guild flags and Anatolian carpets . The guild flags of the wool weavers (with the year 1691), Wagner, tailors (1792), teachers (1802), furriers and shoemakers are hung inside the church. On the walls there are several Anatolian carpets, which are part of the cultural heritage of the Transylvanian carpets .

Grave slabs in the mausoleum tower

Since 1913, nine grave slabs and epitaphs of clergymen have been set into the wall on the ground floor of the mausoleum tower, mainly bishops. Originally, the panels were located in the choir of the church. As early as 1805, two years before the general ban on carrying out burials in the churches, the grave slabs had been brought into the sacristy. They were first described by Friedrich Müller in 1857. Using their inscriptions, he identified the monuments of the Biertan reformer Franz Salicaeus Weidner († 1567) as well as the bishops Lucas Unglerus († 1600), Mathias Schiffbaumer († 1611), Christian Harass († 1686), Christian Barth († 1652), Georg Theilesius († 1646), Franciscus Graff († 1627) and Zacharias Weyrauch († 1621)

• 

  Mathias Lucas Ungler (offic. 1567–1600)

• 

  Mathias Schiffbaumer (offic. 1600–1611)

• 

  Zacharias Weyrauch (offic. 1613–1621)

• 

  Georg Theilesius (offic. 1627–1646)

Renovation works

During the Vrancea earthquake (1977), individual ribs were blown out of the vaults. From 1979, the choir vault was renewed through partial removal and new vaults, the brick ribs attached to the late Gothic vault and the church windows equipped with new slug panes. The original wall painting was uncovered, so that for the first time since the Reformation the original polychrome furnishings of the interior came to light. The roof and roof of the choir have been renewed, as has the whitewash on the outer walls. Then the inner ring wall with the Catholic tower, gate tower and mausoleum tower, as well as the outer ring walls, the walls of the Zwinger and the outer gate tower were restored. After the Romanian Revolution of 1989, a building was converted into a guest house.

During the restoration from 1979–1991, the congregation only had its own modest means at its disposal, so the stone base of the church could not be renewed at first. From 2004 the base area of ​​the church was restored with funds from the Transylvanian-Saxon Foundation and the World Monuments Fund . Cement profiles and plaster were replaced with natural stone and plastered with lime mortar. The cemetery was secured by a cat's head plaster. Further work was carried out on the murals of the Catholic Tower, the roof and staircase of which were also restored.

literature

• Hermann Fabini: Atlas of the Transylvanian-Saxon fortified churches and village churches . Monumenta-Verlag & AKSLg, Hermannstadt 2002, ISBN 978-973-99735-6-4 , p. 62-69 .
• Friedrich Müller: The Protestant Church in Biertan . In: Archives of the Association for Transylvanian Cultural Studies, Vol. II . Sibiu 1857, p. 199-217 .
• Johann Michael Salzer: The royal free market Bierthälm in Transylvania . Vienna 1881.

Web links

Commons : Fortified Church of Biertan  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Entry "Birthälm / Biertan" in the online lexicon on the culture and history of Germans in Eastern Europe , accessed on October 22, 2017.
• Herrmann Fabini: Bierthälm project: repair and renovation. In: sbs-stiftung.de. Transylvanian Saxon Foundation, accessed on October 25, 2017 . 

Individual evidence

1. ^ Thomas Nägler: Market place and bishopric Biertan in Transylvania . Transylvanian-Saxon Foundation, Munich 2004, ISBN 978-3-932043-33-8 , pp. 383 .
2. ^ Entry "Birthälm / Biertan" in the online lexicon on the culture and history of Germans in Eastern Europe , accessed on October 22, 2017.
3. ↑ Johann Michael Salzer: The royal free market Bierthälm in Transylvania . Vienna 1881, p. 84 .
4. ↑ Biertan / Birthälm ( Memento of the original dated May 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at biserici-fortificate.org, accessed October 22, 2017 
5. ^ ^{A b} Villages with Fortified Churches in Transylvania. Entry on the UNESCO World Heritage List, accessed October 27, 2017
6. ↑ Cetatea Biertan ( Memento of the original dated February 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the website of the Sibiu County Cultural Office, accessed October 27, 2017 
7. ↑ Alexandra Mureșan: The Fortified Church of Biertan (Transylvania). In: Myra Shackley (Ed.): Visitor Management: Case Studies from World Heritage Sites . Elsevier, Amsterdam, 2000. ISBN 0-7506-3279-8 , p. 27
8. ↑ Lista Monumentelor Istorice 2010: Judeţul Sibiu ( Memento of the original from February 17, 2019 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
9. ^ Villages with Fortified Churches in Transylvania . UNESCO. Retrieved October 22, 2017.
10. ↑ Ramona Găină, "Secretele bisericilor fortificate săsești din Sibiu" , Adevărul , September 9, 2013
11. ↑ Vasile Drăguţ, Dicţionar enciclopedic de artă Medievala Românească . Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, Bucharest, 1976, p. 233
12. ↑ ^{a b c} Ioan Albu: Lespedea funerară a plebanului Johannes Baccalaureus de Byrthalben († 1526) - The grave slab of the pleban Johannes Baccalaureus de Byrthalben († 1526) . In: Studia Universitatis Cibiniensis, Series Historica . 2009, p. 95-116 ( academia.edu [accessed on October 28, 2017]).
13. ^ Ciprian Firea: Evidence of patronage in late medieval Transylvania. Saxon priests as promoters of the arts . In: Universitatea "1 Decembrie 1918" Alba Iulia (ed.): Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Historica . 2012, p. 149-172 .
14. ↑ Johann Michael Salzer: The royal free market Bierthälm in Transylvania . Vienna 1881, p. 85 .
15. ^ Architectural office Fabini: The fortified church in Bierthälm . In: Monuments in Transylvania, issue 6 . Sibiu 2008, p. 13 .
16. ^ Thomas Nägler: Market place and bishopric Biertan in Transylvania . Transylvanian-Saxon Foundation, Munich 2004, ISBN 978-3-932043-33-8 , pp. 383 .
17. ↑ Erwin Amlacher: Defense Structural function and systematics Transylvanian Saxon churches and castles Bauer . Institute for German Culture and History of Southeast Europe, Munich 2002, ISBN 978-3-88356-159-2 , p. 193 ff .
18. ^ Thomas Nägler: Market place and bishopric Biertan in Transylvania . Transylvanian-Saxon Foundation, Munich 2004, ISBN 978-3-932043-33-8 , pp. 425 .
19. ↑ ^{a b c} Entry Birthälm / Biertan ( Memento of the original from August 11, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in the organ file of the Evangelical Church AB in Romania 
20. ↑ ^{a b} Müller, 1857, pp. 208-212
21. ^ Herrmann Fabini: Restoration work on fortified churches in Transylvania. (No longer available online.) In: sbs-stiftung.de. Transylvanian Saxon Foundation, archived from the original on October 29, 2017 ; Retrieved October 25, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

Coordinates: 46 ° 8 ′ 6.7 ″  N , 24 ° 31 ′ 16.8 ″  E