Ninety seconds on the Biertan Fortified Church
Come for a village church built like a castle, with three rings of wall on a hilltop and the largest multi-panelled wooden altar in Transylvania inside. Plan your visit between April and October, when the church keeps set opening hours.
Three rings of wall enclose the church on its hill in the middle of the village, with vineyards on the slopes below. Towers stand along the walls, and some kept plain working names: the Clock Tower, the Bell Tower and the Bacon Tower, which was a warehouse for goods.
Inside, the Late Gothic hall holds the largest multi-panelled wooden altar in Transylvania, finished in 1513 and still with its original 28 painted panels. Look at it whole from the back of the nave before you go up close.
The sacristy door is the detail to find: a massive oak door that guarded the church treasures for centuries. One turn of its key drives bolts into the frame at more than a dozen points at once, and the lock was shown at a world fair in Paris.
Along one of the walls is a small room where couples who wanted to divorce were locked in together, to be sure they meant it. By local tradition the couple shared one bed, one plate and one spoon. The room's claim is a single divorce in more than three hundred years of use.
In the Mausoleum Tower are the headstones of the priest who built the church, among other grave slabs and epitaphs.
A covered wooden staircase about a hundred metres long climbs from the square to the church. Buy your ticket on site, and take the stair at your own pace.
Inside the gate are two baileys ringed by towers, with three rows of wall linked by gate towers. Walk them from the outside in, tower by tower, and go into the church last.
On the way round, look into the Mausoleum Tower and find the marriage room along the wall, so that the altar and the sacristy door end the visit.
Mind the lunch break. If you arrive just before one, walk the walls while the church is shut and go inside when it reopens at two.
Tour groups can fill the church, so start at opening time to get ahead of them.
The village and the hills above it are worth a wander after the church. The slope above the houses makes a good picnic stop, looking back at the church.
If you want to see more of the valley, marked bike trails run out to the neighbouring villages.
Biertan, and further afield
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