Biertan Fortified Church
Three rings of wall around a church on a hill, a sacristy door with a nineteen-bolt lock, and a room where couples were sent instead of being granted a divorce.
- How long to allow
- An hour to an hour and a half
- Best for
- The single best introduction to the Saxon villages
The background
Biertan is the fortified church to see if you only see one. It sits on a hill in the middle of the village inside three separate rings of defensive wall, linked by towers and gates, and it is one of the seven Villages with Fortified Churches in Transylvania inscribed by UNESCO.
From 1572 until 1867 it was the seat of the Saxon Evangelical bishops of Transylvania — which is why a village of this size has a church of this ambition.
The two things everyone remembers
The sacristy door, made in 1515, is closed by a single lock throwing nineteen bolts at once from one key. It is the kind of object that stops an argument about whether medieval craftsmen were sophisticated.
The other is a small room in one of the towers. For roughly three centuries, a couple who came to the bishop asking for a divorce were sent into it together — with one bed, one table, one set of cutlery — for up to six weeks, before the request would be considered. The local account is that very few divorces followed.
Getting in
Biertan is a working village and the church keeps its own hours, which vary by season. It is a normal part of visiting the Saxon villages that a church is locked and someone nearby holds the key — build slack into the day rather than a schedule.
Sighișoara, Biertan and Viscri in a day
The three Saxon villages in one guided day, with a driver who knows which churches are open.
See this day tripOther places near Sibiu
The Transfăgărășan
The road over the Făgăraș mountains. Open only in the warm months, closed by snow for the rest of the year — check the current season…
Brukenthal National Museum
A genuine European picture gallery on the main square, opened to the public in 1817 — the oldest museum in Romania, and one of the first…
Lutheran Cathedral of Saint Mary
The Gothic church on Huet Square, with a 73-metre steeple that is the thing you navigate the old town by.
ASTRA Museum of Traditional Folk Civilisation
Ninety-six hectares of forest with several hundred real buildings moved into it — houses, watermills, workshops, whole farmsteads. Allow half a day and wear proper shoes.
Viscri Fortified Church
A whitewashed church inside a low fortified wall, in a village that is worth the unsurfaced road it takes to reach it.
Bâlea Lake
A glacial lake at just over 2,000 metres, at the top of the Transfăgărășan. Reachable by car in summer and by cable car when the road…
