Mălâncrav Lutheran Church

Mălâncrav Lutheran Church stands in the village of Mălâncrav, Laslea commune, in the north-east of Sibiu County. Unlike most Saxon villages, Mălâncrav was not part of the King's Land: its inhabitants were serfs of the noble Apafi family and later of the Bethlen family, and serfdom was abolished only in the 19th century. The village is first mentioned in 1305, in the will of the nobleman Apa, founder of the Apafi family. In the 14th century a basilica with three aisles, a west tower and a polygonal choir was built; until the Reformation it was a pilgrimage church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. A papal letter of 1424 allowed Nikolaus Apafi to build a Chapel of the Holy Blood in the village. Of the 15th- and 16th-century fortifications only the defensive storey of the tower and remains of the enclosure wall survive; the defensive storeys above the nave and choir were taken down after a fire in the 19th century. The present look, with exposed stonework, comes from the 1913 restoration. Inside are Gothic wall paintings from the 14th and early 15th centuries that were not destroyed at the Reformation. Biblical scenes from the Old and New Testaments are arranged in registers on the north wall of the nave, and the choir has a cycle in the International Gothic style, the best preserved part. The historian Victor Roth deciphered graffiti from 1404-1405 scratched into these paintings. The church also has a late Gothic polyptych altarpiece, one of the oldest in Transylvania, with the Virgin and Child on the central panel, late Gothic choir stalls from the workshop of Johann Reychmut, tracery windows and a carved west portal. The complex is a listed historic monument (LMI code SB-II-a-A-12416: church SB-II-m-A-12416.01, enclosure SB-II-m-A-12416.02). It was restored between 2010 and 2014 with EU funding. The church has no fixed opening hours; visits are arranged in advance with the caretaker.