Citadel Calnic, Marginimea Sibiului

Citadel Calnic - details and images

Calnic City is located in the village with the same name, on the road between Sibiu, Sebes, about 40 km from Sibiu, 3 km of road E 60 to the left.

Calnic City is one of the most interesting architectural monuments in Romania, occupying a special place among the Transylvanian Saxons fortifications. The specificity of the monument lies in the combination of noble residence, with the symbol dungeon, and fortification free village community, whose constructive intervention is marked by ADOS chambers inside wall. Obviously, the two contributions (the noble family and village community) were successive in time, during the medieval era. Historical value of the combination of architecture, plus the good state of preservation, were important reasons for its inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

Originally built as a princely residence in the last third of the thirteenth century, by Committees of Kelling Chyl (documentary mentioned in 1269), was designed Calnic fortress with a massive rectangular tower house plan, protected by an oval enclosure, fortified with a defensive tower and a tower south of the gate in the north. The defense system was completed by the moat surrounding the city. Preserves the semi-cylindrical vault dungeon from the basement, and upstairs in the main hall, one can see traces of the old fireplace. On the eastern side of the building is a bifora (window profile made of stone), fine architectural element romanicului dating from the late Gothic and early.

AA Rusu assumed it would be rectangular, but only an altar of the chapel. The current donjon was built around 1272 and has a rectangular shape. He was named Siegfried Tower, and the thickness of the walls reach a meter. In the beginning was only 14m high, but was later raised to 20m. The ground floor is a vaulted cellar in a semicircular shape. The same semi-cylindrical vault and we meet on the first floor and other levels have no arch, but the ceiling. Also on the first floor, west wall, there is a fireplace, and were discovered in the excavation and tile fragments.

Once the restoration was conducted between 1962-1964 revealed a bipartite windows frames, with three lobes in each of the two sides, indicating an early Gothic phase, perhaps in the second half of the thirteenth century. Page included enclosure to the northwest gate of a rectangular tower, provided with hers (whose traces are still visible) and perhaps supplemented by a drawbridge. Contemporary with the first building was probably a ditch 3m deep and 10m wide, and a rectangular tower on the south side. In another phase, which belongs to all the noble mansion, was built chapel, coins dated from the time of kings Bela IV and V Stefan century. The restoration and etching revealed the existence in the first stage of three rectangular windows slightly arched at the top on the west wall and one on the south wall. The two Gothic windows, visible today, were built later and dates from the middle of the fourteenth century. The triumphal arch was apparently the second successive murals, the latest being a bust of Christ.

Saxon nobles residence until 1430, the castle was sold last descendants of the noble family of farmers from Calnic community, which, in the first half of the sixteenth century, they began rising a new belt walls were fortified with a gate tower Barbacane, and in the courtyard, the foundations of an older building, built a chapel. Inside the chapel are preserved fragments of frescoes from the beginning of the sixteenth century, and on the west side is preserved wooden gallery, decorated with floral panels painted in Renaissance style of folk and dated 1733.

In the courtyard were built along the walls, storage rooms for supplies for times of tribulation. Closure of the two chambers in the sixteenth century dungeon requiring multi-layering (now simple tower defense) with two levels, reaching a height of over 20 meters, thus ensuring efficient firearms beyond the exterior wall.

The fortress was restored by the Directorate of historical monuments in the years 1961 - 1964, the shipyard was led by architect Stefan Bals. Along with the restoration, excavations were conducted by Radu Heitel. Near the fortress is the former Evangelical parsonage, an edifice erected in the sixteenth century and enlarged in 1779. Going up the driveway, beside the parochial house, arriving at the main church of the Saxons, located in the middle of the cemetery. Built in the sixteenth century, the village community, church on the hill was more transformed in the nineteenth century, but is now a neo-Gothic appearance. In the choir to keep some elements of sculpture in the initial phase: two portal tabernacles and vestry, and engaged columns which support a dome (now extinct). Here are two baroque painted pews, dating from the second half of the eighteenth century. Tribune west of the church houses an organ dating from 1867 (manufacturer Carl Hesse, Vienna).

Calnic City, along with other historical monuments were conceding Association "Ars Transsilvaniae" courtesy Romania Evangelical Episcopal CA Romania and formed the International Cultural Center, sponsored by the Institute of Archeology and Art History of the Romanian Academy in Cluj-Napoca.

In areas of the city were organized several documentaries and art exhibitions, and the chapel became the auditorium which holds symposiums, seminars and conferences. In the same environment were performed organ concerts and listening to medieval music, Renaissance and Baroque.

In the former parsonage was documented library of the Association.

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