Cristian Fortified Church

The fortified Evangelical church stands in the village of Cristian (Großau in German), seat of the commune of the same name in Sibiu County, west of the city of Sibiu. The village is first recorded in 1223 under the Latin name Insula Christiani and was founded in the mid-12th century, as one of the first Saxon settlements in Transylvania. The church was built on the site of a Romanesque basilica dedicated to Saint Servatius, of which the lower storeys of the bell tower with the upper gallery, a few vaulted bays of the north aisle and traces of the round-arched windows of the nave survive. After the mid-14th century a Gothic choir flanked by side chapels was added. Towards the end of the 15th century the aisles were rebuilt as a late Gothic hall church, completed in 1495; a contract of 1480 with the Sibiu master mason Andreas Lapicida for the stonework has survived. The village was burnt by the Ottomans in 1493. Around 1500 the church received a double enclosure wall on an irregular polygonal plan, reinforced with towers, and around 1550 a secondary enclosure on the north side. The large octagonal tower dates from 1580. From 1756 Cristian was one of the first three villages resettled, after a plague epidemic, with Protestant Landlers forcibly sent from Vienna. The interior furnishings date from the 18th century and are dominated by the Baroque altar of 1729. The Romanesque west tower was raised by a defensive storey, later replaced by the present roof. On the north side of the parish house stands an annex with a pointed roof, the so-called „plague pulpit”, from which the priest held services through a small window during epidemics. Many pairs of storks nest on the church and in the village. The complex is a listed historic monument, LMI code SB-II-a-A-12369, comprising the church (SB-II-m-A-12369.01), fragments of the inner enclosure (SB-II-m-A-12369.02), the Octagonal Tower (SB-II-m-A-12369.03), the outer enclosure (SB-II-m-A-12369.04) and the zwingers with the parish house (SB-II-m-A-12369.05). The Fortified Churches Foundation lists the Evangelical Parish of Turnișor as the contact for visits.