Location: Agnita Fortified Church, Sibiu, Transylvania, Romania Address:Agnita, Sibiu county Nearest large town: Medias(39 km) Attested: 1466 Architectural style: Gothic with renaissance and baroque elements Visiting Hours: Visits are booked at phone
On the road between Medias and Fagaras it is Agnita Fortified Church, in the village of Agnita, Sibiu County.
The Fortfied Church is built on the nucleus of the former Romanesque basilica from the 13th century, in a gothic style, with harmonious Renaissance and baroque element combinations. In 1466, the Agnita Fortified Church is mentioned for the first time.
The church still has the old fortification precincts and the defensive towers: The Belfry, The Tailors’ Tower, The Shoemakers’ Tower, The Carpenters’ Tower and of course the Bacon Tower where, as customarily in whole Saxon Transylvanian villages, the guilders would store their pork bacon.
In 1466 the King Mathias Corvin grants Agnita Fortified Church people jus gladii, the right to condemn people to be executed by sword and the permission to hold half of the battle-fit men to defend the town in case of a war, because it is situated at the borders of Transylvania.
One legend speaks of a long Ottoman siege on Agnita Fortified Church. The entire population found shelter in the fortress, but the supplies were running low and soon they would have had to surrender to the enemies. The bravery of Ursula, a tanner’s daughter, saved the people. She dressed in rags, took a cowbell and went out of the fortress screaming. Her appearance frightened the enemies who did not know what creature that was… and they all ran away and the Agnita Fortified Church and people was saved!
Fortified Churches in Transylvania
The Fortified Churches in Transylvania are one of the most famous historical monuments in Romania. Their construction, history and organization methods is revealing the medieval time in which they lived their glory . This monuments of history left deep traces in the history of these places in southern Transylvania.
A fortified church is a church that is built to play a defensive role in times of war. This churches were specially designed to incorporate military features, such as thick walls, battlements and embrasures. Churches with additional external defences such as curtain walls and wall towers are often referred to more specifically as fortress churches or Kirchenburgen (literally "church castles").
A high concentration of fortified churches may be found in parts of Europe where there was a lot of hand-to-hand warfare, for example in Transylvania, which was the scene of Ottoman invasions.
South-eastern Transylvania region in Romania has one of the highest numbers of existing fortified churches from the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries. More than 150 villages in the area count various types of fortified churches, seven of them being included in the UNESCO World Heritage under the name of Villages with fortified churches in Transylvania.
