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Mediaş is the second largest city in Sibiu County, Transylvania. In the 13th century, the kings of Hungary invited German settlers known as Transylvanian Saxons to the area, who settled in the valley of the Târnava Mare River. According to the tradition, the town was founded in 1146, being so one of the oldest cities in Transilvania

1414: The St. Margaret church was the first church built in Mediaş

St. Margaret church

1490-1534: The city is fortified, after a document signed in 1477 by the king Matthias Corvinus's office

1586: the first mentioning of a school in Mediaş ("Schola civitatis“)

The first document that notes the presence of a hospital in the city is dated 1487

One of the most important buildings in the Transylvanian Renaissance style is located on the north eastern side of the central market, the Schuller House, mayor of Medias at the time, and is documentary attested in 1588. But in the old chronicles it is mentioned long before the year 1588

The Schuller House

In the heart of the medieval city the evangelical church dedicated to St. Margaret

Tourist Guest House Honterus

Holy Trinity Church (Biserica Ortodoxã „Sfânta Treime”)

The Pedestrian bridges over Târnave (one in the country that suspended climbing spiral inclined to district Field mouth)1977

The Orthodox Cathedral, 1935“Sf. Mihail şi Gavril”

“Stephan Ludwig Roth” high school

Stephan Ludwig Roth house

Stephan Ludwig Roth (1796, in Mediaş ― 1849 in Cluj) was a Transylvanian Saxon intellectual, pedagogue and Lutheran pastor

Medias Museum was founded in 1950, having an older collection (first half of the nineteenth century) of the Evangelical Gymnasium from Medias. Over time, the collection was completed with pieces from Biertan Museum

Mediaş Museum

Prejmer Fortified Church - ( UNESCO World Heritage Site )Prejmer is noted for its fortified church, one of the best preserved of its kind in Eastern Europe. Between 1962–1970, was carefully restored it to its present condition; The church is modeled after churches of Jerusalem, as well as built in the style of Late Gothic churches from the Rhineland

In the 15th century, it was surrounded by a wall 12m high, forming a quadrilateral with rounded corners. The wall was reinforced by four horseshoe-shaped towers, two of which have since disappeared. The entrance - a vaulted gallery - is protected by a barbican and flanked by a lateral wall. The defensive structure is strengthened by embrasures and bartizans, while the covered way is surrounded by a parapet

The largest fortified church in southeastern Europe, Prejmer was built by Teutonic knights in 1212-1213. The powerful surrounding walls are 40 feet high and 10-15 feet thick. Historical records attest that in its 500 years of existence, the fortress was besieged 50 times. However, it was only captured once, in 1611 by Gabriel Báthori, Prince of Transylvania

Prejmer Fortified Church - ( UNESCO World Heritage Site )

Polyptych altar, the oldest in Transylvania (dated to the middle of the fifteenth century)

The granaries and rooms that accommodated the villagers are arranged on four levels above the cellars

Each village family had a designated room for shelter in case of attack. The red-roofed wall accommodated 272 rooms, stacked over four stories and linked by

wooden staircases

Transylvania is home to nearly two hundred villages with fortified churches built by the Saxons between the 13th and 15th centuries. Having to withstand constant invaders, the villages’ central areas, where the church was located most of the time, were fortified with defense walls, having the capacity to shelter a large number of people

Valea Viilor, Sibiu County, Village of Valea Viilor

Seven of the fortified churches

have been designated by UNESCO

as World Heritage Sites.

A visit to these quaint

villages, placed

amidst lush farmland and green rolling hills, will give

travelers a taste of the long-gone medieval

times 

Valea Viilor, Sibiu County, Village of Valea Viilor

Valea Viilor

Valea Viilor (Vorumloc)

In Transylvania, the main focus of UNESCO relies on the Saxon fortress churches. The Saxons,

after settling in Transylvania in the early 11th century, started to build fortified cities while the people in the villages fortified their churches

against migratory people. Only a few of the

over 500 German fortifications are now listed by UNESCO but

probably the most representative is the city

of Sighişoara, as the fortress is considered the

best preserved, continuously inhabited, early middle age city in

Europe

Sound: Gheorghe Zamfir - Sus Pe Culmea Dealului

Text and pictures: Internet

Copyright: All the images belong to their authors

Presentation: Sanda Foişoreanu

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