9/3/2023 0 Comments Lost medieval villages![]() ![]() Viscri's main attraction is its fortified church, which gives the village its German (Deutsch-Weißkirch, or German White Church) and Hungarian (Szászfehéregyháza, or Saxon White Church) names. ![]() It's one of 20 or so traditional guesthouses in Târnava Mare that the foundation has restored – employing local craftsmen and using original techniques and materials like yellow clay, slaked lime, handmade bricks, pine and oak – as a way of showing local residents that their heritage can be a source of growth for the community. An attractive cornflower-blue building, with high walls and a gateway large enough to allow a loaded haycart through, the house once belonged to the wealthiest family in the village but was on the verge of falling down when MET stepped in. I'd come to Târnava Mare for exactly that reason, basing myself in an old Saxon guesthouse on Viscri's main street. "It is an almost ancient way of living it offers visitors a glimpse into a world that no longer exists in other parts of the globe." "The architecture of the houses, the traditions and the villagers' connection to nature has remained locked in time," said Ursula Radu-Fernolend, who was born and raised in Viscri and is now project manager at the Mihai Eminescu Trust (MET), a foundation dedicated to preserving the heritage of Transylvania's villages. But their churches and their houses remain, and the area has a fascinating barely-changed-in-centuries feel to it horse-drawn carts are the main method of transport and residents eke out a sustainable existence from smallholdings or shepherding. Today, just 10 Saxons still live in Viscri, out of a population of less than 500, and there aren't that many more in Meșendorf, Criț or the other surrounding villages. They colonised a ribbon of fertile land just north of the Carpathian Mountains, built fortified churches for sanctuary in times of siege, and formed robust small-scale farming communities. The region was settled in the 12th Century by Saxons from what are now parts of Germany, France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, invited here by King Géza II of Hungary under the auspices of establishing their own economy – but with the real objective of defending the far reaches of his kingdom from raiding Turks. Occupying a rural triangle in central Romania between the historical cities of Sighişoara, Braşov and Sibiu, Târnava Mare is one of Europe's most intriguing cultural landscapes. This was the evening procession of cows, when residents gather outside their pastel-coloured Saxon homes to watch the herds return from pasture – a daily ritual that's been signalling the end of the working day in Viscri, Criț, Biertan and the other medieval villages of south-eastern Transylvania's Târnava Mare region for hundreds of years. Routine kicked in, and they peeled away through arched gateways and into their own cobbled courtyards, where they'd be milked and fed for the night. Weary hooves scuffed up clouds of dust as the herd trudged up Viscri's dirt-road high street, stopping to gulp water from a trough beneath a gnarled walnut tree. I heard them before I saw them, the soft jangle of metal bells carrying on the warm evening air. ![]()
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