Fortresses and fortified Churches - Atel
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Atel
ATEL
Atel is a parish in the Sibiu county made up of five villages. It is situated in the Tarnavelor Plateau, on the Tarnava Mare river, 12 km away from Medias. It notes a population of 3,588 inhabitants (1995).
Archaeological findings have evinced two wheel-made pots, the pointed end of a lance and three bronze bracelets which date back to the second era of the iron - La Tčne (the 5th century B.C.-the 1st century A.D.), as well as the ruins of a rural Roman establishment (the 2nd century B.C.-the 3rd century A.D.). At the same time, a valuable Roman silver treasure made up of 375 coins, 18 rings, 158 necklaces, bracelets, and fibulae was found there.
The parish of Atel, first mentioned in writing in 1253 under the name of Echelin, became a civitas in the middle of the 14th century.
In the village of Atel there is a Fortified Church, made up of a Church proper around which a Peasant Fortress was built. The latter had several defence towers of which some fragments have been preserved to the day. The defence construction started before 1471 and lasted until around 1500. The Church, which is Evangelical today, was built in the Gothic style, in the second half of the 14th century. In the 15th century, its side nave ceilings and the transept have been altered. These works of modernization have been attributed to master artist Andreas from Sibiu, as the resemblance between the portal of the vestry at Atel and the one at Mosna, an accomplishment that belongs to the same architect, is quite obvious.
The door of the Atel Church (1499) is of great beauty and artistic finesse, with plates and a discrete decoration with intarsia. It proves that by that time, the woodwork art in Transylvania had assimilated Renaissance decorative patterns.
The wooden pews, made by Johannes Reymuth in 1516, impress by their simple composition and their decoration made up of either excised plant stalks, or, mainly, of intarsia, whose main ornament is the tower.
made by in 1516, impress by their simple composition and their decoration made up of either excised plant stalks, or, mainly, of intarsia, whose main ornament is the tower.Another valuable item of the Church is the chalice, richly decorated with vegetal elements produced separately through cutting and hammering. They are applied on the base of the chalice, on its leg, on the knot and on the lower part of the cup, in a whirling manner, relating to the Baroque style. This chalice resembles the one at the Evangelical Church at Medias, and the one at the Black Church in Brasov.
In the village of Alma, first mentioned in writing in the 13th century, there is a Peasant Fortress from the 16th century, with a Church in the Gothic style, built in 1502. Fragments of the original paintings murals have been preserved to the day, with some of them being renovated in 1718.
In the village of Depus there is an Evangelical Church built in the 15th century in the Gothic style. It boasts a beautiful polyptical altar painted between 1520-1522, as well as a pneumatically acted organ dating from 1731. In the villages of Smig and Giacas there are 15th century Evangelical Churches, one in each of them.
is a parish in the Sibiu county made up of five villages. It is situated in the Tarnavelor Plateau, on the Tarnava Mare river, 12 km away from Medias. It notes a population of 3,588 inhabitants (1995). made by in 1516, impress by their simple composition and their decoration made up of either excised plant stalks, or, mainly, of intarsia, whose main ornament is the tower.