precious-postcards

Villages with Fortified Churches in Transylvania

These Transylvanian villages with their fortified churches provide a vivid picture of the cultural landscape of southern Transylvania. The seven villages inscribed, founded by the Transylvanian Saxons, are characterized by a specific land-use system, settlement pattern and organization of the family farmstead that have been preserved since the late Middle Ages. They are dominated by their fortified churches, which illustrate building styles from the 13th to the 16th century.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/596

The Villages with Fortified Churches in Transylvania are examples of defensive vernacular architecture made by Saxon settlers. They date from the 13th to the 16th century. Transylvanian villages were often organised around a fortified church, to protect them from invading Mongols and Turks. 

The following six former Saxon and one Székely villages comprise this WHS: 

- Biertan

- Câlnic

- Dârjiu

- Prejmer

- Saschiz (on the postcard)

- Valea Viilor

- Viscri 

http://www.worldheritagesite.org/sites/transylvania.html