Transylvania
Biertan
One of the finest fortified churches.
Biertan is a Saxon village in Sibiu County, in the heart of Transylvania, renowned for its fortified church, one of the most impressive and best-preserved in the whole region and inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list. Set among hills of vineyards and orchards, the village is dominated by the fortified ensemble that rises on a knoll at its centre: a late-Gothic hall church, built at the end of the fifteenth and the start of the sixteenth century, surrounded by a triple ring of defensive walls with towers and bastions. The interior preserves a monumental polyptych altarpiece with many painted panels and a famous sacristy door with an extraordinarily complex locking mechanism.
One tower keeps the memory of the "marital prison," where couples on the brink of divorce were kept together for a few days. Biertan was long the seat of the Saxon bishops, which explains the scale and richness of the fortification. The atmosphere is one of patriarchal calm, with Saxon burgher houses and an idyllic hill landscape.
The cuisine is rustic, Transylvanian and Saxon. Biertan is reached by a side road from Mediaș and Sighișoara. It is worth visiting for its UNESCO fortified church, its Saxon architecture and the charm of the settlement.
