Prejmer fortified church
Have you ever heard of fortified churches? I don’t recall that I had, but we visited one on the edge of Brasov where we had stayed for the night. A short bus ride in the morning brough us to a fortified church Biserica fortificată Premjer, Romania. I had never heard of a fortified church before. Many are found in the Balkans, particularly Romania. They were built in the Balkans, and probably many other places, to protect the Christians from the Turks who saw fit to exact taxes from them or face the rough consequences of attacks. The Turks like the Christians could be brutal.
Sigismund of Luxembourg, who according to Vio our guide, “owned all of Europe” in the 14 hundreds, and was the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Hungary who wanted protection from the Turks, allowed Saxons from Germany to live in this region without paying any taxes. All they had to do, was protect him from the Turks. It was a pretty good deal. They had good land and lots of clean water. But there was a catch—the Turks. And the Turks were violent, abusive, and nasty.
The Prejmer fortified church is a Lutheran Church located in Brasov County in the Transylvania region of Romania that was fortified to give the parishioners protection from frequent raids by Turks who extorted payment of taxes from them. If they did not pay the protection racket charges the Turks would attack. The church was founded by Germanic Teutonic Knights that was later taken over by the Transylvania Saxon community. It was originally a Roman Catholic church that became Lutheran after the Protestant Reformation. The church is now part of the villages with fortified churches in Transylvania, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Around 1211, King Andrew II of Hungary permitted the knights to settle in his territory around Prejmer where they built this church in 1218. The church was built with a Greek cross plan, the only one of its kind in Transylvania. A similar design is found in a few German churches in the northeast part of Germany.
The triptych altarpiece shown in my photograph dates to around 1450. The scene is from the Passion of Christ. It is the most ancient triptych in Romania.
A bell tower was added above the center of the church in 1461. The Greek cross shape was modified between 1512 and 1515 when 2 side naves were added while the main one was extended. The interior of the church is very simple and shows no signs of frescoes. There were some 19th century paintings in the church which were removed during restoration.
When Ottoman forces (Turks) or other invaders broke through the Buzâu Pass nearby the first place they encountered when they were looking for tribute was Prejmer. The Turks basically came every year. The Christians had to pay every year and they didn’t like it. In addition to plunder, the Turks often seized women, children, and even men as slaves. As a result, the parishioners built the fortification around the church to give them some means of defending themselves rather than paying annual tribute. As soon as the warnings went out that Turks were on the way people gathered inside the fortification ring where they lived for as long as it took to repel the invaders.
When they were attacked by the Turks the siege could last a few weeks during which time they would have to store sufficient food for them to survive. They also had to eliminate their waste inside the fortification since it was not safe to venture out when the Turks were there. This could get a bit unpleasant. Between the 13th and 17th centuries the church was only rarely captured so the fortification was quite effective.
People who did not follow the rules were obligated to stand outside the church holding a big heavy rock. Huguette, Christiane’s sister, was bad so she had to hold the rock, but could not even lift it. I guess people were stronger back in the day.
The fortification also had a moat that was filled with water for added protection. The circular exterior walls were up to 5 m (16ft. in) thick and reached nearly 12 m (39 ft.) in height. There is a second arched wall at the entrance gate. There were 5 towers for defense along with a battlement. A battlement is defensive architecture that consists of that portion of the city walls that comprise a parapet, in in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at intervals to allow for the launch of arrows or other projectiles from within the defences against invaders. The parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure.
There were over 270 rooms within the fortification at this church that could offer shelter to about 1,600 villagers when attacked.
Nowadays we think of churches as peaceful places of worship. Historically however, they were often fought over by the various religions or political forces. To us a fortified church seems weird. At one time they were a matter of life or death.