Fortresses and fortified Churches - Rupea

RUPEA

The town of Rupea lies midway between Brasov and Sighisoara, 74 km north west from Sighisoara by the European road E60. It is 54 km away from Sighisoara by railroad, or 52 km by E60. The town is 451 m high. It notes a population of 6,195 inhabitants (according to the 1997' census).

The first human traces go back to the Paleolithic and early Neolithic ages (5500-3500 BC) as shown by numerous prehistoric findings, i.e. stone tools, pottery fragments, urns. On the premises of the ancient Dacian settlement Ramidava, called by the Romans Rupes (from which the present name of the town derives), a prefeudal settlement was built (10th-13th centuries), and later on a medieval fortress (mentioned in writing for the first time in 1324, during the rule of the Hungarian king Charles I Robert of Anjou). In 1433 the settlement was recorded as a fair under the name of Kohälm (top of rock) or Cohälm. In the 15th century, Rupea singled out as an important commercial and crafts centre with 12 guilds. It bore the name of Cohälm until 1929, when it turned into Rupea. During the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, Rupea was renowned for its four big fairs that were held there annually. The history of the settlement is far from being a peaceful one. Thus, in 1432 and 1437 the town was plundered and devastated by the Turks. In 1716, it was the Black Death that afflicted the town's population. Between the two World Wars, Rupea was a flourishing cultural Saxon centre, but afterwards it gradually decayed, a fact which was mainly due to the emigration of the Saxons to Germany during the communist rule.

Standing on a massive basalt rock of the Cohälm hill, on the west side of the town, the old Saxon Fortress at Rupea has three concentric precincts, built successively between the 14th-17th centuries. The stronghold was raised on the premises of a former defence fortification, which had been there before the Saxons settled in Transylvania (12th century). The walls of the three precincts, erected straight from the rock, make up a spiral that starts from the lower precinct, goes up through the middle precinct (the largest in surface), and ends up with the upper precinct (the most imposing and the oldest). The upper precinct covers over 1500 m. Its walls blend perfectly with the natural rock, with which they form the defensive system of the fortress. One can get inside the fortress through the gates beneath the Gunpowder Tower on the northern side. On the inside walls, one can still see traces of the rooms, i.e. which once belonged to the mayor or to the priest, and which would be used as a refuge at times of siege. The middle precinct, that encompasses the upper precinct, exhibits the remains of a chapel, and of two defence towers the Latticed Tower (Gatterturm) and a pentagonal one. The fortress or the lower precinct dates back to the 17th century. It is defended by 4-5 m tall walls provided with bastions and ended up with battlements. A forty-one m deep fountain was dug there in 1623.

After 1324, representatives of king Charles I Robert of Anjou took over the fortress and held it for almost a century (until 1420, when it was returned to the inhabitants of Rupea).

In 1688, the Fortress was taken up and rebuilt by the Austrians who garrisoned there.

During the plague of 1716, the Fortress was used as a refuge by the healthy, and later on, in 1788, as the villagers' shelter from the Turkish invasion.

Though lying on the main road usually taken by Transylvania's invading troops, the Fortress at Rupea, which was repeatedly besieged by the Turks along the centuries, remained almost intact. It was last restored in 1954.

The Evangelical Church of the town, built in the 14th-16th centuries in the Gothic style, holds a valuable collection of Oriental carpets. It boasts a richly ornamented silver chalice.

The Museum (1970) has a rich collection of documents and archeological exhibits related to the Fortress (history section), alongside folk costumes, pottery, tools, fabrics, icons (ethnography section).