Marienburg (Feldioara)

Marienburg
	Approximate, original shape of the Marienburg
Creation time :	13th Century
Castle type :	Hilltop castle
Conservation status:	Reconstruction of the ruin 2013–2017
Place:	Feldioara / Marienburg
Geographical location	45 ° 49 '12.8 " N , 25 ° 36' 21.6" E Coordinates: 45 ° 49 '12.8 " N , 25 ° 36' 21.6" E
Height:	497 m

The Marienburg in Feldioara (German Marienburg ), in the Brașov district , in Romania is a medieval order castle of the Teutonic Order .

location

The hill fort is located about 20 kilometers from Brașov (Kronstadt) . It was built on a hill. The castle is about 497 meters above sea level .

There are western and eastern fortifications on site . The eastern one is the castle complex , which is also called "Ur-Marienburg" ( location ). The plant to the west is more like a city fortification ( location ). The aforementioned masonry can be seen around the fortified church in the village of Feldioara. However, this western fortification is not to be set in one with the remnant of the curtain wall directly at the fortified church, which belongs to this. 45.82023 25.6060145.82049 25.6018

background

In 1211 King Andreas II of Hungary called the Teutonic Order to support the Kumans in the country. They should secure the eastern border of his growing kingdom. The king granted them numerous privileges, including immunity, the right to self-government and the construction of stone fortresses to secure the area. Their first castle was founded in the same year, on a mountain in the middle of the swampy and wooded area, where, as archaeological finds show, settlement activities had already taken place. This castle, which was probably the headquarters of the knights of the order, was named after the patron saint of the order of the Virgin Mary . The relationship to the Hungarian king and nobility deteriorated after the order apparently began to establish an independent rule in Transylvania in Burzenland . Pope Honorius III. approved the order to form its own state in 1223. The Hungarian king forced the friars to leave the country again in 1225. Shortly after the knights of the order left Romania, in the 13th century, the Marienburg was finally built on the Nogat river (in northern Poland ).

In 1838 the place Feldioara with the Marienburg was badly destroyed by an earthquake. The preserved stock is interpreted differently today. The more classical interpretation obviously assumes that the original Marienburg, i.e. the eastern fortifications, represents the actual castle complex that the Teutonic Brothers built. Another interpretation assumes that the fortifications to the west represent the remains of the actual Marienburg, which the Teutonic Brothers built and that the fortifications to the east represent only the better preserved area of the outer works . Another interpretation assumes that the original Marienburg was only built by the Transylvanian Saxons . Between 2013 and 2017, the aforementioned castle ruins in the east were renovated and largely rebuilt.