I visited the Prejmer Fortified Church coming from Brașov. Asphalt road to the destination, parking right next to it. In front of the church I found a very beautiful and well-kept park equipped with benches for resting. Right at the entrance to the church I found the machine for purchasing entrance tickets with card payment. The entrance to the church is through a tunnel. In the first inner courtyard I found the entrance to the church museum as well as two shops with local specialties. At the shops you can buy various products made by the person who sells them (syrup from various forest fruits, honey, zacuscă, etc.) as well as souvenirs. With the first step into the fortified church I was greeted by medieval architecture

The entrance to the museum is via some steps. The museum has 5 rooms for visiting. In these rooms the exhibits are arranged very nicely and highlight the attire of those times and the tools that were used for different activities.

In the second inner courtyard, bordered by the inner wall which is full of rooms for various utilities, but most of them closed to visitors, we find the church of Prejmer. A majestic and very imposing construction.

is a historical and architectural monument in the town of Prejmer in Brașov County. The place was built in the 13th century as a Roman Catholic church on the basis of an old Roman basilica dating from the 12th century. The Saxon community in Prejmer later adopted the Augsburg confession, thus becoming Lutheran. The fortified church complex consists of the church, the fortified enclosure, with a defense road, two towers, two bastions and a gate tower. The monument is bordered by asphalt roads that are very easy to reach and is bordered by free and paid public parking lots. In front of the Fortified Church is a green park equipped with benches. Bars and restaurants can be found on the sides of the road.

Schedule Season (01.04 - 15.10):

Monday - Saturday: 09:00 - 17:30 (last entry)

Sunday: 11:00 - 17:30 (last entry)

Off season (16.10 - 31.03): 09:00 - 16:00 Tickets: card payment

Church

Around 1211, King Andrew II of Hungary mentioned in a document addressed to the Teutonic Knights the name of the Tartlau (Târlung) river, next to which the town of Prejmer (in German Tartlau) would grow. The Teutonic Knights, who received rights over this territory, raised the church in the town to a certain level. The place of worship was built in the Burgundian Gothic style introduced by the Cistercians at the Cârța Monastery. Like other monuments in Transylvania, the fortified church of Prejmer has undergone numerous interventions, but following the restoration undertaken by the Directorate of Monuments between 1960 and 1970, it regained its original form. In 1999, the church was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The place, dedicated to the Holy Cross, was built on a central plan, in the form of a Greek cross, modified by interventions in the 16th century. Initially, the building was composed of four equal arms arranged around a square centered by an octagonal tower. Each arm was composed of two bays, one square and the other polygonal, the choir of the church being flanked on both sides by two pairs of rectangular chapels. The kinship with the spirit and forms used on the church site of the Cistercian monastery of Cârța, and on the other hand, with those present at the Church of St. Bartholomew in Brașov, both built after the middle of the 13th century, allows the dating of the church in Prejmer to the second third of the 13th century and its placement in the same stylistic environment. The church contains the oldest triptych in Transylvania, dated between 1450-1460.[1]

The Fortification

Because Prejmer was the first locality to receive the blows of the Turks coming through the Buzău Pass, after King Sigismund of Luxembourg ordered the construction of defense systems in the Land of Bârsa, the fortification of the church began by erecting a high and strong enclosure surrounded by a wide moat of water. The fortress, built in the shape of a circle, had walls 3-4 meters thick and 12 meters high, bastions, iron gates and drawbridges.[2] A guard road was used to supply the fighters at the battlements. In addition to the fire mouths fixed in the walls, the fortress housed an unusual fighting device: the famous "Organ of Death". Made up of several weapons placed together, which all fired at once, it caused great panic and heavy losses to the enemy.