2021-06-30 15h34 Prejmer: Biserica fortificata.
The fortified Evangelical Church of Prejmer was built in the 13th century on the basis of an old Romanesque basilica dating from the 12th century.
It was around 1211 that King Andrew II of Hungary granted the Teutonic Knights rights to this territory. They are the ones who began to build the church of Tartlau (Saxon name of the locality) whose construction will continue in the Burgundian Gothic style introduced by the Cistercians at the monastery of Cârța.
The church was built as a Greek cross, modified by the interventions of the 16th century. Initially, the building consisted of four equal arms arranged around a square centered by an octagonal tower. Each arm was made up of two bays, one square and one polygonal, the choir of the church being flanked on both side by two pairs of rectangular chapels. The kinship with the spirit and forms used on the site of the Cistercian monastery church in Cârța, and with those present at the Church of St. Bartholomew in Brașov, both built after the mid-13th century, allows the dating of the church of Prejmer in the second third of the thirteenth century and its inclusion in the same stylistic atmosphere.
After Prejmer was the first locality to suffer the blows of Turkish troops (passed through the Buzău pass) King Sigismund of Luxembourg ordered the construction of defense systems in Ţara Bârsei. The church was fortified by a high and strong enclosure surrounded by a wide water ditch. The fortress, built in a circle, had walls 3-4 meters thick and 12 meters high, bastions, iron gates and drawbridges. A guard route was used to supply the fighters of the ramparts. In addition to the mouths of fire attached to the walls, there was an unusual fighting device: the famous "Organ of Death". Made up of several weapons placed together, which fired at the same time, it caused the enemy great panic and heavy losses.
Nb: In the church is the oldest triptych in Transylvania, dated between 1450 and 1460.
2021-06-30 15h34 Prejmer: Biserica fortificata.
The fortified Evangelical Church of Prejmer was built in the 13th century on the basis of an old Romanesque basilica dating from the 12th century.
It was around 1211 that King Andrew II of Hungary granted the Teutonic Knights rights to this territory. They are the ones who began to build the church of Tartlau (Saxon name of the locality) whose construction will continue in the Burgundian Gothic style introduced by the Cistercians at the monastery of Cârța.
The church was built as a Greek cross, modified by the interventions of the 16th century. Initially, the building consisted of four equal arms arranged around a square centered by an octagonal tower. Each arm was made up of two bays, one square and one polygonal, the choir of the church being flanked on both side by two pairs of rectangular chapels. The kinship with the spirit and forms used on the site of the Cistercian monastery church in Cârța, and with those present at the Church of St. Bartholomew in Brașov, both built after the mid-13th century, allows the dating of the church of Prejmer in the second third of the thirteenth century and its inclusion in the same stylistic atmosphere.
After Prejmer was the first locality to suffer the blows of Turkish troops (passed through the Buzău pass) King Sigismund of Luxembourg ordered the construction of defense systems in Ţara Bârsei. The church was fortified by a high and strong enclosure surrounded by a wide water ditch. The fortress, built in a circle, had walls 3-4 meters thick and 12 meters high, bastions, iron gates and drawbridges. A guard route was used to supply the fighters of the ramparts. In addition to the mouths of fire attached to the walls, there was an unusual fighting device: the famous "Organ of Death". Made up of several weapons placed together, which fired at the same time, it caused the enemy great panic and heavy losses.
Nb: In the church is the oldest triptych in Transylvania, dated between 1450 and 1460.