Biertan fortified church

Biertan is the most imposing of the fortified churches built by the Transylvanian Saxons, the German-speaking settlers who from the Middle Ages lived in villages between Sibiu, Mediaș and Sighișoara. Rather than build castles, these communities turned their churches into fortresses where villagers could shelter from raids, and at Biertan the result is a hilltop church ringed by three concentric walls linked by towers and gatehouses. Together with the village it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1993, and later became part of the wider Villages with Fortified Churches in Transylvania site.

The church itself, a Late Gothic hall church with three naves of equal height, was built between 1486 and 1524 on the site of an earlier Romanesque one, and was the last of its kind in Transylvania. Biertan's status explains its ambition: it held market rights, competing with Mediaș, and from 1572 to 1867 it was the seat of the bishops of the Saxon Lutheran church. Inside are a polyptych altarpiece of 28 panels painted between 1482 and 1513, a stone pulpit carved with reliefs in 1523, and the celebrated inlaid sacristy door, whose lock bolts it at thirteen points at once and was exhibited at the Paris World's Fair of 1889.

The walls date from the 14th to the 17th centuries. Within them stand a four-storey clock tower, a wooden bell tower, a mausoleum tower with the tombstones of the bishops, and the "Catholic tower", used by the few Saxons who kept the old faith after the Reformation, whose chapel preserves rare 16th-century wall paintings. Local tradition also points out the "matrimonial prison", where couples seeking divorce were locked up together, with one bed, one plate and one spoon, for up to two weeks to see whether they could make peace.

The church was damaged by the 1977 earthquake and restored in the 1980s. Since 1990 Saxons who emigrated have returned every year for a reunion here.

Getting there

Biertan is about 25 km by road from Mediaș and about 29 km from Sighișoara; Sibiu is roughly 75 to 90 km away, about an hour and ten minutes by car. Buses from Mediaș and Sighișoara are infrequent, so a car is the easiest way. The nearest airport is Târgu Mureș Transilvania International (TGM), about 38 km away in a straight line.