Malmkrog

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Mălâncrav
Malmkrog
Almakerék
Malmkrog Coat of Arms
Malmkrog (Romania)
Paris plan pointer b jms.svg
Basic data
State : RomaniaRomania Romania
Historical region : Transylvania
Circle : Sibiu
Municipality : Laslea
Coordinates : 46 ° 6 ′  N , 24 ° 39 ′  E Coordinates: 46 ° 6 ′ 30 ″  N , 24 ° 39 ′ 0 ″  E
Time zone : EET ( UTC +2)
Height : 345  m
Residents : 1,027 (2002)
Postal code : 557117
Telephone code : (+40) 02 69
License plate : SB
Structure and administration
Community type : Village
View of Malmkrog from the fortified church
Plan of the fortified church
Gothic frescoes from the 14th century in the Romanesque church
Malmkroger Altar , before 1469

Malmkrog ( Romanian Mălâncrav , Hungarian Almakerék , Transylvanian-Saxon : Malemkref ) is a place in the Transylvania region in Romania .

Geographical location

The village is located in the north of Sibiu County , in a side valley of the Târnava Mare ( Great Kokel ), 32 kilometers southwest of Sighișoara (Schäßburg) and 12 kilometers from Laslea (Großlasseln) .

history

Malmkrog is one of the few villages in Transylvania that has both a Hungarian aristocratic castle and a Saxon fortified church. Although the village was mainly inhabited by Transylvanian Saxons since the Middle Ages , it did not belong to the Saxon royal soil . Rather, it was in the direct possession of the Hungarian noble family Apafi (e.g. Michael I. Apafi ), which belonged to the leading families of the Hungarian nobility in Transylvania. The ancestral seat of the Apafis was also located in Malmkrog. Together with the villages of Kreischberg , Rauthal , Neudorf and Pesch village (rum .: Stejăreni) it formed a between Sighisoara chair located and the Media shear chair Praedium that the Hungarian king after Komitatsbodenrecht was awarded.

Malmkrog was first mentioned in a document in 1305 in the Latin will of the noble Apa, the founder of the family. This divided his property among his descendants. Malmkrog went to his youngest son Gregorius together with Neudorf and Peschendorf. After a dispute, this succession was not officially recognized by the Sibiu Provincial Assembly until 1340. The village is referred to as Halbencragen , from which the Saxon pronunciation of Almkragen , Halmkrog and then Malmkrog later developed. The Hungarian name Almakerek or Albkarak means "round apple forest". However, it is unclear whether the Saxon or the Hungarian form is the older.

First documentary mentioned axis is the pastor of Herricus Malmkrog, the 1,309 in a decade dispute between Saxon dean is named as a member of the screamers chapter. A papal letter from 1424 has been preserved in which Nicholas (Miklós) Apafis is allowed to build a chapel of the Holy Blood in the village ( capellae Sanguinis Christi in Malencrach Transiluaniae ). It is unclear whether such a chapel was ever built, but research suggests that it could mean the then still Catholic Saxon church or an annex intended for it. From the art-historical evidence, the church must have already existed at that time, as it is built in Romanesque style and the Gothic frescoes are dated to around 1350. It is further suggested that the church may have been a local pilgrimage site as it is unusually large for the village.

The Romanesque church is the choir with pre-Reformation frescoes equipped from the 14th century, what an evangelical is a rarity village church in Transylvania. While the medieval frescoes were painted over in many Saxon churches during the Reformation or destroyed during later renovations, they are still there today in Malmkrog. The frescoes are very well preserved, especially in the apse , but less well in the nave , which was created later. The Gothic painting style of the frescoes indicates influence from South Tyrol , which reached Transylvania via Bohemia .

The Malmkroger Altar , a late Gothic winged altar from around 1495, with its magnificent depiction of the Madonna on the central panel and other scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary, is the only pre-Reformation altarpiece in the country with its panel paintings that has remained unchanged.

The Apafis Castle probably dates back to a building in the 15th century. In 1468 the Hungarian king belehnte Matthias Corvinus the province governor Nicholas Csupor with the Praedium to Malmkrog, but already in 1473 the family Apafi regained possession. Between 1679 and 1778 the castle was rebuilt and adapted to the Baroque style . The Apafi family died out in the 18th century and the property was taken over by their close relatives, the Bethlen family , in 1775 by decision at the Habsburg court in Vienna . The rural residents of the village were serfs of these magnate families until the 19th century . Nevertheless, they must have lived in relative prosperity, as the fortified church of Malmkrog is particularly splendidly decorated.

In the 18th century, an Orthodox church for the Romanian population was built for the first time on the northern edge of the village , but its tower does not date from this period. In 1969 the dilapidated old tower was dismantled and a new one was built. A Reformed house of prayer and a Catholic chapel were built for the Hungarian population .

During the revolution of 1848/49 the castle was looted by rebellious farmers. Apart from the church and the manor house, there was only one brick house at that time. The English traveler Charles Boner reports from 1865 that after the abolition of serfdom, the residents of Malmkrog tore down their old huts and built stone houses instead. After the First World War , the Protestant parish bought the manor house and used it as a replacement for the church that was being repaired, and later as a ballroom and kindergarten. The Saxon scholar Victor Roth scientifically examined the medieval frescoes of the fortified church for the first time and was able to decipher graffiti on the frescoes, which go back to the year 1405.

During the communist era, the former Apafi castle was expropriated and given over to the state. However, it fell into disrepair until it was only a ruin after the Romanian Revolution of 1989 . At the end of the 1990s , the Mihai Eminescu Foundation, supported by Prince Charles , took on the building and extensively renovated it. It was reopened in 2007 and now offers luxury accommodation for tourists.

During the decades of communism and especially after the revolution, a large part of the Saxon population emigrated to Germany , which caused the population to decline.

population

In 2002 the 1,027 residents of Malmkrog confessed to the following ethnic groups:

Attractions

Apafi castle

Evangelical Romanesque Church

literature

  • Arne Franke: The defensive Sachsenland. Fortified churches in southern Transylvania. With a historical introduction by Harald Roth. German Cultural Forum for Eastern Europe, Potsdam 2007, ISBN 978-3-936168-27-3 .

Web links

Commons : Malmkrog  - collection of images, videos and audio files

swell

  1. Official German-language name according to Romanian government resolution 1415 of December 6, 2002 ( Official Journal ( Memento of September 5, 2018 in the Internet Archive ))
  2. No. 554 - February 24, 1340: The Sibiu Provincial Assembly recognizes the property rights of Appa's descendants in Malmkrog, Neudorf, Rauthal, Kreisch, Felsendorf and Peschendorf. In: Document book on the history of the Germans in Transylvania . tape I ( uni-trier.de [accessed on May 20, 2019]).
  3. a b Mihai Eminescu Trust (MET): Mălâncrav (English)
  4. fortified-churches.com: MALANCRAV / MALMKROG ( Memento of October 7, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ^ Evangelical rectory AB Malmkrog: The Church
  6. Malmkrog / Mălâncrav. In: kirchenburgen.org. Fortified Churches Foundation, 2017, accessed on October 14, 2017 .
  7. ^ Gisela and Otmar Richter: Transylvanian winged altars . In: Christoph Machat (ed.): Cultural monuments Transylvania. Vol. 1 . Word and World, Thaur near Innsbruck 1992, ISBN 978-3-85373-149-9 , p. 46-57 .
  8. ^ Emese Sarkadi Nagy: Local Workshops - Foreign Connections: Late Medieval Altarpieces from Transylvania . In: Studia Jagellonica Lipsiensia, Volume 9 . Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2012, ISBN 978-3-7995-8410-4 , p. 27-30 .
  9. ^ Evangelical Parish AB Malmkrog: History of the place
  10. ^ Victor Roth: The frescoes in the choir of the church at Malmkrog. In: Correspondence sheet of the Association for Transylvanian Cultural Studies. Vol. 26, 1903, ZDB -ID 520410-0 , pp. 49-53, 91-96, 109-119, 125-131, 141-144.
  11. Siebenbürger Zeitung: Restored mansion in Malmkrog inaugurated , October 18, 2007
  12. Statistics on the ethnic groups (Hungarian)