Prejmer Fortified Church

Prejmer is the one that makes the whole idea click. From outside it is a white ring of wall with a church inside. From the courtyard you see what the wall is: four storeys of small rooms, 272 of them, reached by wooden galleries and stairs.

One room per household. When a raid came the village moved in — people, grain, everything — and stayed until it was over. The rooms are still numbered.

Where it comes from

The Teutonic Knights were granted land in this corner of Transylvania by King Andrew II of Hungary and began building here in the 1210s. The church is Gothic on a Greek-cross plan, which is unusual in Romania and points straight back to that origin.

It is one of the seven Villages with Fortified Churches in Transylvania inscribed by UNESCO, and it is often described as the largest fortified church in south-eastern Europe. We report that description rather than assert it; the 272 rooms are the fact worth carrying.

Pair it with Hărman

Hărman is a few kilometres away and is the natural companion — the same idea, a different plan, a fraction of the visitors.