Fortress church

Last updated
Fortress church in Tartlau, Transylvania Prejmer 200609.jpg
Fortress church in Tartlau, Transylvania

A fortress church (German : Kirchenburg) is a particular type of church that, in addition to its religious functions is also used by the local population as a retreat and defensive position, similar to a refuge castle. A fortress church usually implies that the church is enclosed by its own fortifications, such as curtain walls and defensive towers. By comparison, a church with simple defensive features, such as battlements and embrasures on the church itself, is usually just referred to as a fortified church.

Contents

Architectural history

The fortress church is typically surrounded by defensive walls equipped with wall towers and wall walks. It is a development of the fortified churches, whose defensive walls were also the actual walls of the church. Although the terms are often used interchangeably without clear distinction, a fortified church properly refers to a single building whereas a fortress church is a building complex. Construction of defensible churches evolved over time. Earlier constructions included a church surrounded by barns in which a siege of several days could be endured. Then fortified cemeteries (Wehrfriedhof) arose and simple fortified churches, to finally the fortress church. The fortress churches surviving today date from the 15th century.

Unlike the populations of towns and cities, villagers could not afford to build defences around an entire settlement. The fortress churches were often the only stone building in such places and so were the population's only refuge from the violence of the military conflicts, the local raiding and plundering that often accompanied military campaigns, as well as providing defence against nomadic bands of marauders.

In the Early Middle Ages, especially in recently Christianised regions like Saxony, former bishop's seats were designed as fortress churches. In Saxony they were referred to as a Domburg or "cathedral castle". Fortress churches are especially common in Franconia, South France and Transylvania (Romania). Particularly in Transylvania, a historically German settlement area, there are well over a hundred fortress churches of which seven have been designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites (Birthälm/Biertan in 1993, Kelling/Calnic, Wurmloch/Valea Viilor, Dersch/Darjiu, Deutsch-Weißkirch/Viscri, Keisd/Saschiz and Tartlau/Prejmer in 1999). These were established in order to defend against successive Turkish invasions.

Fortress churches have not survived in North Germany, most likely due to the re-use of their stone for other building purposes during period of scarcity of such materials. The only well-known fortress church in the coastal region of North Germany is the Church of St. Dionysius in Bremerhaven-Wulsdorf, which is recorded as having a field stone curtain wall up to 3.60 metres high.

List of places with surviving fortress churches

Austria

Croatia

Germany

Laichingen in the Swabian Jura Laichinger Kirchenburg.jpg
Laichingen in the Swabian Jura

Baden-Württemberg

Bavaria

The fortress church of The Holy Spirit in Grafengehaig Grafengehaig Kirche 3.JPG
The fortress church of The Holy Spirit in Grafengehaig

County of Kulmbach

County of Eichstätt:

County of Bad Kissingen:

Landkreis Cham

County of Erlangen-Höchstadt

County of Forchheim:

County of Haßberge:

County of Kitzingen:

Kleinlangheim fortress church KibuKl.JPG
Kleinlangheim fortress church
The Hutturm tower of the fortress church at Vachdorf Hutturm.jpg
The Hutturm tower of the fortress church at Vachdorf

County of Main-Spessart:

County of Miltenberg:

County of Neustadt/Aisch – Bad Windsheim:

County of Rhön-Grabfeld:

County of Schweinfurt:

Effeltrich St. Georg in Effeltrich.jpg
Effeltrich

County of Würzburg:

County of Passau:

City of Nuremberg:

Lower Saxony

County of Osnabrück:

Thuringia

Walldorf Walldorf werra kirche.jpg
Walldorf
St. Michael in Hellingen fortress church Hellingen-St-Michael.jpg
St. Michael in Hellingen fortress church

County of Hildburghausen:

County of Schmalkalden Meiningen:

Saxony

County of Görlitz

Luxembourg

Philippines

The fortress church in Capul, Northern Samar Capul Church, Northern Samar.JPG
The fortress church in Capul, Northern Samar

Serbia

Switzerland

Romania (Transylvania)

Dealu Frumos, Sibiu [ro] Kbschoenberg.jpg
Dealu Frumos, Sibiu  [ ro ]

Among the dozens of well-preserved fortified churches in Transylvania (present day Romania), seven of them are located in the UNESCO World Heritage Site inscribed in 1993 as the villages with fortified churches in Transylvania. [2]

France

The fortress church in Saint-Juvin Eglise fortifiee de Saint Juvin.JPG
The fortress church in Saint-Juvin

United Kingdom

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transylvanian Saxons</span> German minority of Transylvania, Romania

The Transylvanian Saxons are a people of mainly German ethnicity and overall Germanic origin —mostly Luxembourgish and from the Low Countries initially during the medieval Ostsiedlung process, then also from other parts of present-day Germany— who settled in Transylvania in various waves, starting from the mid and mid-late 12th century until the mid 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sânpetru</span> Commune in Brașov, Romania

Sânpetru is a commune in Brașov County, Transylvania, Romania, located just north of the county seat, Brașov. It is composed of a single village, Sânpetru.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transylvanian Landlers</span> German ethnic group

The Landlers or Transylvanian Landlers are an ethnic German sub-group which has been living on the territory of today's Romania, more specifically in southern Transylvania since the 18th century onwards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bad Neustadt an der Saale</span> Town in Bavaria, Germany

Bad Neustadt an der Saale, officially Bad Neustadt a. d. Saale and often simply called Bad Neustadt, is a town in northern Bavaria, Germany. It is the capital of the Rhön-Grabfeld district in Lower Franconia. It is situated on the rivers Franconian Saale and Brend, near the Rhön Mountains, 30 km north of Schweinfurt, and 47 km southeast of Fulda.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bad Bocklet</span> Municipality in Bavaria, Germany

Bad Bocklet is a municipality in the district of Bad Kissingen in Bavaria in Germany. It is a market town and a health spa.

A fortified church is a church that is built to serve a defensive role in times of war. Such churches were specially designed to incorporate military features, such as thick walls, battlements, and embrasures. Others, such as the Ávila Cathedral were incorporated into the town wall. Monastic communities, such as Solovki Monastery, are often surrounded by a wall, and some churches, such as St. Arbogast in Muttenz, Switzerland, have an outer wall as well. Churches with additional external defences such as curtain walls and wall towers are often referred to more specifically as fortress churches or Kirchenburgen.

The Eiersberg is a hill in Bavaria, Germany. It is 349 metres high and located in the province of Lower Franconia, near Mittelstreu. On its slopes are the indications of human settlement from the early Ice Age.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brendlorenzen</span> Stadtteil of Bad Neustadt an der Saale in Bavaria, Germany

Brendlorenzen is a suburb (Stadtteil) of the town of Bad Neustadt an der Saale in the region of Unterfranken in Bavaria, Germany. The village is stretching along a single main street for more than two kilometers. Its length is due to the growing together of originally two separate villages called Brend and Lorenzen. The latter name is derived from the chapel of the same name, which is dedicated to Saint Lawrence (Lorenzo). Brend comes from the tributary of the same name, in whose valley the place is located. Brendlorenzen has approximately 4500 residents with several new housing development sites spreading onto the surrounding farm land.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Refuge castle</span>

A refuge castle or refuge fort is a castle-like defensive location, usually surrounded by ramparts, that is not permanently occupied but acts as a temporary retreat for the local population when threatened by war or attack. In former times such sites were also described as giant castles because their origin was ascribed to giants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salzburg Castle</span>

Salzburg Castle stands on the edge of a plateau above the town of Bad Neustadt an der Saale in Lower Franconia in southern Germany. The large Ganerbenburg is still partly occupied today and not all areas are accessible to the public.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leonrod Castle</span>

Leonrod Castle, also called Lewenrode Castle, is a ruined water castle on a manmade lake in the Bibert valley on the edge of the parish of Leonrod in the market town of Dietenhofen in Ansbach county in the German state of Bavaria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Câlnic Fortress</span> Building in Alba County, Romania

The Câlnic Fortress is a fortress located in Câlnic, Alba County, in the Transylvania region of Romania. It was built by a nobleman whose family later sold it to the local ethnic German Transylvanian Saxon community at a time when the area belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary. When still used for defensive purposes, the double walls encompassed a residential keep, storerooms and a Roman Catholic chapel that became Lutheran following the Reformation. Together with the surrounding village, the fortress forms part of the villages with fortified churches in Transylvania UNESCO World Heritage Site.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elevated entrance</span> Entrance of medieval castles

An elevated entrance is a type of entrance, common in the design of medieval castles, that is not accessible from ground level, but lies at the level of an upper storey. The elevated entrance is the lowest and frequently the only way of entering a fortified building or residence. In the case of circular towers, a large opening in the main wall at ground level was a potential weakness and experts on castle design have argued that the elevated entrance served a structural as well as defensive purpose.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gößweinstein Castle</span>

Gößweinstein Castle, also called Schloss Gößweinstein, is a mediaeval hilltop castle in Gößweinstein in the county of Forchheim in the German state of Bavaria. It towers high above the market town and the River Wiesent and may have been the inspiration for Richard Wagner's grail castle in his opera, Parsifal. The castle is a Bavarian listed building, no. D-4-74-129-10.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bärnfels Castle</span> Castle in Germany

The ruins of Bärnfels Castle are the remains of a late mediaeval aristocratic castle on the southern edge of the village of Bärnfels in the municipality of Obertrubach in the Upper Franconian county of Forchheim in Bavaria. The ruins of the spur castle are freely accessible.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waischenfeld Castle</span> Castle in Germany

Waischenfeld Castle is a ruined rock castle on a rocky plateau a few metres west of the town of Waischenfeld in the province of Upper Franconia in the German state of Bavaria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Schloss Kunreuth</span> Castle in Germany

Schloss Kunreuth is situated on the northwestern edge of the eponymous village of Kunreuth which is part of the collective municipality of Gosberg in the county of Forchheim, in the province of Upper Franconia in the south German state of Bavaria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Margaret's Church, Mediaș</span>

St. Margaret's Church is a Lutheran church, located at 1 Piața Castelului in the historic town center of Mediaș (Mediasch), Sibiu County, in the Transylvania region of Romania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transylvanian Saxon culture</span>

The Transylvanian Saxon culture refers to the regional culture of the Transylvanian Saxons, an ethnic German group which has been living in Transylvania, present-day central Romania since the mid and mid-late 12th century onwards, thus being one of the oldest groups of the German diaspora still residing in Eastern and Central Europe, alongside the Baltic Germans and the Zipser Germans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ostheim Fortress Church</span> Ostheim Fortress Church is located in the Lower Franconian, town of Ostheim

Ostheim Fortress Church is a fortress church located in the Lower Franconian town of Ostheim vor der Rhön in the Rhön-Grabfeld district. The church building of St. Michael there is located within a double ring wall built between 1400 and 1450 with a zwinger in between. The double ring wall has five defense towers and is reinforced with six bastions halfway along the wall. The Protestant church, built in the Renaissance style on the foundations of a predecessor church, dates from 1615 to 1619. Within the fortifications there are 66 vaulted cellars with 72 lofts, which served as protective dwellings in times of war and in which the local inhabitants kept their belongings safe in times of crisis. With a floor area of 75 by 75 meters, it is considered the largest and best-preserved fortress church in Germany. Some of the vaulted cellars are used by the local population as storage cellars.

References

  1. Albert Jacquemin, Burgbefestigungen der Stadt Luxemburg, Imprimerie Saint-Paul, Luxembourg, 1991,163-164
  2. Villages with Fortified Churches in Transylvania. UNESCO World Heritage Centre 1992-2010

Literature