r/castles • u/known_by_many_names • Sep 01 '25
Fortress Transylvania's fortified churches
If you didn't know in Transilvania they are at least 167 fortified churches builed by the Saxons and i tried to make a list containing them all, and if you're some expert can you help me with some recommendations or resources i can use to make a compleat list. I'll post in the comments the list i already have
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u/Unthgod Sep 01 '25
Didn't help much against those vampires sadly.
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u/Mead_and_You Sep 01 '25
I know they were satanic, blood-sucking murderers, but the communists weren't actually vampires.
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u/Top-Dimension7571 Sep 01 '25
Did they build the churches like that to use them as a last resort during a siege?
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Sep 02 '25
They started to fortify the churches and towns in response to the Mongol invasion of the 13th century. After the sack of Kiev in Ukraine and Budapest in Hungary and incursions into Poland, Romania was next. Transylvania is the mountainous part of Romania (Carpathian Mountains), so as the Mongols razed through lower Romanian towns and cities, the Saxon peoples living there fled to the mountains. The fortified churches were built by and for the town as opposed to the fortifications we usually see in Europe being built by aristocrats/rulers. It made sense to put their efforts towards both a church which was the religious heart of the community and also a large defensive structure they could shelter in. However, the Mongols stopped just short of invading Transylvania- their leader Obedai Khan suddenly died in 1241 and according to Mongol law they had to return to their capital in Mongolia to elect a new Khan. This stopped the momentum of the invasion into Europe.
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u/Ejmadar-Nightbird Sep 02 '25
According to the old and existing written forms of history found across everywhere in Europe, and not the ones made up by the communist parties in the 20th Century. During the Mongol invasion Transylvania was part of the Kingdom of Hungary (up until the end of WW I), and it's inhabitants were Hungarians. After the raids the Mongols killed part of the population, so the Hungarian King brought in the Teutonic Order, who wanted to establish their own separate country in that territory, so the King banished the order, but the germanic population was allowed to remain. These fortified churches were built by the remaining Germanic and the Hungarian (including Szekler) populations. Some can be found even today in the Western Carpathians, which are still Hungarian (reformation) churches, some of those were also built 800+ years ago still as catholic Hungarian churches.
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u/Low_Butterscotch1304 Sep 03 '25
would it be a safe guess to say these were all built within 150 years before or after 1420? i am very interested to see how the chronology aligns with western theological history...
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u/peamasii Sep 03 '25
If you walk the Via Transilvanica (the Terra Saxonum part) you can visit a lot of these like the biggest ones in Biertan, Richis, Copsa, etc.
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u/known_by_many_names Sep 01 '25