Radio România Internațional

Tag: Black Church

  • The City of Sebeș

    The territory between the Mureș and Olt rivers and the Carpathian Mountains, started being inhabited, as of the 12th century, also by Germans colonized by the kings of Hungary. One of the seven seats or urban communities that had the right to be a judicial residence was the current city of Sebeș. Called Melnbach in local German or Mühlbach, Sebeș today has approximately 26,000 inhabitants, of whom almost 80% are Romanian. Traditionally, the city has always had more religious denominations, boasting Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Orthodox and Greek Catholic communities and churches.




    We asked museographer Radu Totoianu from the Ioan Raica Municipal Museum in Sebeș about the history of the place. He described the beginnings of the settlement: Sebeș is mentioned in documents in 1245, shortly after the Mongol invasion. Priest Theodoric of Malenbach, the Latinized German name, asks Pope Innocent IV for the right to collect taxes from other neighboring parishes as well, as his parish had been greatly affected by the Mongol invasion. The Pope allows his request. This is actually the birth certificate of our city. It is an important city, it is the city that preserves the oldest privilege of surrounding itself with stone walls, a privilege given in 1387. It is surrounded by a fortification with an enclosure wall totaling over 1,800 meters, several towers that are still preserved, of which perhaps the most famous are the Student’s Tower or the Tailors’ Tower.



    It is this fortification work that gives part of the town’s small reputation. The story of the monk Georg Captivus Septemcastrensis, who lived in the 15th -16th centuries and wrote the first treatise on the Turks, is important and it was summarized for us by Radu Totoianu: The tower was maintained and defended by the tailors’ guild and is related to the Turkish attack of 1438, when a Turkish army besiege the city. After resisting for several days, a truce is reached, the Turks are allowed to enter the city on condition that they did not cause any destruction. However, this did not happen. Capitulation was not something everyone liked, some citizens barricaded themselves in that Tailors Tower. Among them was a young student at the school within the Dominican monastery. The tower is set on fire, the vast majority of those in the tower die, but among the survivors is this young man, a 13-14-year-old child. He has the fate of many of the people of Sebeș. He is sold as a slave, and he is kept in captivity for 20 years. He is sold several times, eventually finding a more humane master who treats him more like a family member than a slave. The master frees him, he wanted very much to be freed, he told his master, to see his native places. He promised to come back, but he never did. He didn’t even go to Transylvania, he went to Cyprus, and then moved on to Italy. He arrives in Rome, joins the order of Dominican monks and writes a work considered the first European treatise on Orientalism which has seen over 25 editions. One of them, from 1511, was edited by the reformer of the German church, Martin Luther, who also prefaced it.

    We have asked Radu Totoianu which are the buildings most representative for the small town
    founded by the Transylvanian Germans.


    Radu Totoianu: The most
    important ecclesiastical building in the town is the Evangelical Church. The
    first construction stages in the Roman architectural style kicked off after
    1241. But after a while, the town, which enjoyed certain economic prosperity at
    that time, wanted something more sumptuous. The Gothic style had already
    appeared in Transylvania and parts of the church were built in this style.
    Experts believe that if the church had been finished in this style, it would
    have been the second largest in Transylvania after the Black Church in Brasov.
    However, as the town numbered only 500 families at that time, they didn’t have
    the financial strength to complete the church in the Gothic style. So, they
    resorted to a compromise, a mixture of two styles. It is very beautiful though
    as it also has elements of the Renaissance style.


    Another architectural
    landmark is the building housing the city museum.


    Radu Totoianu: The most
    important lay building in the Sebes town is the Zapolya House, which presently
    houses the museum. It is related to the name of the Transylvanian ruler Ioan
    Zapolya who eventually became king of Hungary after the death of Vladislav 2nd
    in battle. However, the move failed to satisfy everybody and a part of the
    Hungarians came with another candidate, Ferdinand of Habsburg, of the Austrian
    royal family. A civil war broke out and king Zapolya and his army withdrew to
    Transylvania, conquered Sebes and established his headquarters in this
    building, which is presently housing the museum. He even died in this building
    around 1540.


    Although small, the town
    of Sebes played a major role in the history of Transylvania. Its well defined
    personality has been preserved along the centuries.

    (LS, bill)

  • Brasov

    Brasov

    Today we’ll be taking
    you on an imaginary journey to     Brasov, in central Romania, a
    city renowned for its medieval architecture and the multitude of cultural
    events unfolding here all over the year.     Spending a week in Brasov could
    cater for the taste of any fastidious tourist as the region offers a lot of
    opportunities to anyone interested in culture, shopping, adventure tourism or
    mountain sports irrespective of the season while others can simply enjoy
    outdoor activities.




    Back in the medieval time,
    Brasov used to be a thriving citadel, upon which it became a city that
    connected the Western world with the Balkans, a major trade hub. Its historical
    monuments are a delight to tourists visiting the city, standing proof of
    flourishing olden times. Its surroundings are fraught with fortified churches
    lying amid quiet secluded villages. In the following minutes Cristian
    Macedonschi, a representative of Brasov city hall, will be introducing some of
    the most important tourist attractions in the area.






    Cristian Macedonschi: The Teutonic citadel of Marienburg or Feldioara is worth
    visiting as there we also have the Michael Weiss monument of fallen soldiers.
    We have fortified cities, UNESCO monuments, such as that in Prejmer or Viscri.
    Viscri, for instance, has achieved world acclaim after the visits paid here by
    Prince Charles. Then there is the Black Church, which is the Romanian monument
    with the largest number of photos taken. The Bran castle lying in the region
    boasts the largest number of visitors in Romania, over 550 thousand. Then there
    is the fortified city of Rasnov and Brasov’s historic center flanked by the
    White and Black Towers, the Weavers Bastion, The Museum of Urban Civilization.






    The Museum of urban
    civilization is located on the premises of the old city of Brasov housed by a
    building dating back to 13th and 14th centuries. The
    museum has three floors, where visitors can admire restored photo studios,
    fashion design salons as well as rooms that are representatives for the life of
    the bourgeoisie in mid-19th century. However, the most
    representative lay monument in Brasov is the Town Hall called Casa Sfatului,
    which dates back to 1420. Around this you’ll be seeing many other
    representative buildings. Here is now Stelian Cosulet telling us more about the
    County History Museum in Brasov.






    Bogdan Cosulet: Not far from the Casa Sfatului, there is the largest building of
    Brasov, St. Bartholomew’s Church dating back 1160. Historians are still takings
    sides about the time the church was built. Close to it there lies the famous
    Black Church, a gothic cathedral representative for the architecture in
    South-Eastern Transylvania. This remains the biggest religious monument in
    Romania measuring 92 meters in length. The initial project included two towers
    but out of economic reasons only one tower was built. The Black Church is
    presently housing major art collections that date back before Luther’s Reform,
    such as a portrait of the Madonna, from the time of Matei Corvin, around
    1480-1490.


    Stephan
    Markus Schlandt is a pipe organist at the Black Church in Brasov, where he
    gives concerts on a Buchholtz mechanical pipe organ, the largest in Romania
    with 3993 pipes.






    Bogdan Cosulet: The Black Church was initially called St. Mary and was a Catholic
    church. But Iohannes Honterus, a humanist from Transylvania of Saxon origin
    changed the religious faith of the Saxons, at the same time changing the
    education system; he drew a map of Transylvania, brought a printing press to
    Brasov and started printing religious books in Romanian, German and Latin. The
    region knew its first flourishing period around the 16th century,
    through the crafts that developed here, a fact that boosted its relations with
    the Ottoman Empire. For this reason we are proud to have the largest collection
    of Turkish carpets outside Turkey. The city was burnt to the ground by a
    powerful blaze in 1689. The buildings we see now were built after that blaze,
    which affected also the Black Church, that’s why we call it black. There followed
    one century of restoration. The first to be restored was the dome then the pews
    and the interior decoration as well as the pipe organ.


    Here is priest
    Vasile Oltean with the Muzeum ‘First Romanian School’ in the oldest Brasov
    district called the Schei talking about one of the oldest traditions in
    the region called the Junii Festival.




    Vasile Oltean: Junii of Brasov were a group of people who used to come in
    their traditional folk costumes carrying battle flags and brandishing maces.
    They preserved many traditions some of them dating back to the ancient kingdom
    of Dacia. According to historical documents, the church in the region was built
    along the years by no less than 32 rulers and boyars from Wallachia and
    Moldavia and because of that, we know a fact that was also confirmed by 80
    princely documents that a genuine Romanian cultural centre had emerged to have
    later materialized in the first Romanian school. The first legitimate question
    anyone may ask is, when did Romanians have their first school? History told us
    their first school was founded in the 16th century but the church’s
    chronicles read clearly, ‘the holy church was built around 1495 along with the
    school’.




    Brasov remains a destination for sports and
    adventure lovers too. One of the most important and renowned ski resorts nearby
    is Poiana Brasov, where one can find the best ski schools in winter, while in
    summer one make take delight in some of the most beautiful trekking routes
    where you’ll enjoy the flora and fauna of the Carpathians. Package trips to the
    region can be purchased from various travel operators based in Brasov or on
    line.