Fortresses and fortified Churches - Viscri
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Viscri
VISCRI
The Fortified Church at Viscri lies 7 km south of Bunesti parish (Brasov county) in the village by the same name.
In the 12th century, that is in the first stage of German colonization in Transylvania, the Saxons had built a Romanesque church, which, having been pulled down by the Tartar invasion in 12411242, was replaced by an edifice which has been preserved to the day. The plan of the former church had been simple, with a single nave and a semicircular apse on its eastern side.
Though small in size, the Gothic Church at Viscri impresses by the grandeur of its walls made of roughly shaped stones. Like the former Romanesque church, it has a single nave and a flat ceiling. In the chancel one can see what was left of a Romanesque pillar, ended in a cornice capitel (actually the only one known in Transylvania), alongside a triumphal arch left also form the former church.
The furniture of the Church is decorated with folk Saxon motifs.
The residencetower alongside its outbuildings placed in an oval enclosure that had once (in the 13th century) been home to the village's headman were actually the core of the Peasant Fortress built in the 14th century, and restored, together with the Church, in the 16th century. The Fortress has two precinct walls. The inner one, provided with four towers and two bastions, has been preserved to the day. On the wall, one can still read that restoration works were made in the 17th century under the guidance of architect Hartmann, and having the following motto ‘In pace de bello et in bello de pace cogitatis'.
Mention should be made of the covered wall-walk of the fortification, linked to the four towers and to the Church. At times of war, it would allow people's safe moving along within the Fortress.
The Church and the Peasant Fortress display three different building materials, namely stone mixed with partially plastered brick for the precinct walls, towers, as well as for the Church's walls and spire; wood used to encircle the precinct walls and the towers, and placed below the cornices and along the bracket corridors; tile which covers the Church's and the towers' tall roofs. Their corresponding colours, i.e. white, brown and red make the buildings' complex look particularly picturesque. To this effect contribute also the Church's buttresses, with lateral entrances to the nave, alongside the very narrow space left between the Church and the Fortress, keeping with the rural styles during the Middle Ages.