A műemlékek sokszínűsége (A 28. Egri Nyári Egyetem előadásai 1998 Eger, 1998)

Előadások / Presentations - SEBESTYÉN József: Saxon and székely fortofoed churches in Transylvania

evidence that in the middle of the 17th century there were several builders from Csík, Háromszék and Udvarhelyszék working on the construction of castles. At the top of a rise in the southern part of Nagyajta, which lies at the mouth of the valley of the river Ajta, stands a Unitarian church-castle. The east-facing medieval Gothic church, with a western tower, is surrounded by a castle wall in the form of a regular parallelogram, although not arranged centrally. Analogues to the church's surviving loopholed defensive gallery without machicolations can be found in the Saxons' churches and also in the late-gothic fortified churches in Nagytnarton/Mattersburg and Márczfalva /Marz, in what was Hungary's western border lands, now Burgenland, rebuilt in the second half of the 17th century after the ravages of the Turks. The entrance to the fort was set into the base of the pentagonal, old Italian bastion gate tower on the north side. It is interesting that only two corner towers were built: a similarly parallelogram-shaped tower in the north-west corner and a rectangular tower opposite it, to the south-east. Some sections of the battlements along the top of the walls have remained relatively intact, as have the loopholed machicolated galleries displaying the form of the end of the 15th and start of the 16th centuries. Carved into the lintels of walled-up openings, which were probably used for bringing building materials in and out, is the year 1622, giving a good indication of when the walls were built. The system of earth fortifications on the west, south and east sides can still be delineated. A more or less regular pentagonal fortification with corner towers was built around another Unitarian church, at Sepsiárkos, some time near 1640. There is an old Italian bastion tower at three of the corners, and at the south-west and south vertices there are square angle towers, of which the latter is a bell-tower completed in 1844. There may have been an earlier stone wall around the medieval church which was demolished in 1830. The people of the village set to the task of building it probably at some time during the rule of Gábor Bethlen, and the dates 1639 and 1640 inscribed into the plaster on the castle wall record when it was completed. Some original, sunken machicolated galleries can still be seen on the eastern and western sections of the wall, The several-storey corner towers, which still retain their roofs, have many loopholes facing towards the walls. In Illyefalva, on the right bank of river Oit, a Reformed church-castle stands on the hill above the village. The medieval predecessor of the late-18th century church which stands there today was surroundded by an oval castle wall reinforced by a single gate tower. Of this only the often-rebuilt gate tower and a small section of the castle wall on its two sides, with sunken machicolated galleries, survive. On 12 September 1612 Illlyefalva was besieged and the castle ransacked by the Brassó Saxons, who had turned against Prince Gábor Bethlen and were making their way through Háromszék. The experience persuaded the villagers to build the second, external line of defence consisting of a more or less regular pentagonal wall with old Italian bastion corner towers. The peculiarity of the newer castle wall is that the corner towers, along with the new square southern gate tower, were built inside the walls. The gap between the walls and the guard towers was an attempt to avoid damage from the earthquakes that so often brought destruction to Háromszék. On the south side, a small section of the old earth fortifications can be seen here too. After being taken by means of a trick, the castle razed in August 1658 by the Turkish and Mongol forces rampaging through Barcaság and Háromszék. The defensive fixtures of the burned-down castle were probably not repaired thereafter, and the 1738 earthquake caused such damage to the church that it had to be rebuilt almost from scratch. The corner towers were then only used for storage, and wooden, half-saddle roofed sheds were built for the same purpose on the inside of the walls. Church fortifications were not built in this style by the Saxons, but similar, slightly irregular, square and pentagonal fortifications can be found in the former western border lands of Burgenland. Near Kismarton/Eisenstadt, the church at Széleskút/Breitenbrunn is protected by a mid-17th century wall, and that at VulkapordányAVulkaprodersdorf by a wall dating from the 1630s. Last in this category is the castle church in Kézdiszentlélek. The Gothic parish church of the Holy Spirit must have been completed at the turn of the