Attraction
Moșna Fortified Church
The fortified Lutheran church of Moșna, about 9 kilometres from Mediaș on the road to Agnita, is one of the largest Saxon churches in the Târnava area. The late Gothic hall church, built around 1480-1486 by the Sibiu stonemason Andreas Lapicida, has a stone sacrament house about ten metres high and is surrounded by a walled enclosure with towers and a zwinger.
Foto: Zsolt deak, CC BY-SA 3.0 RO, via Wikimedia Commons
Moșna Fortified Church stands in the centre of Moșna village, the seat of Moșna commune, about 9 kilometres from Mediaș on the road to Agnita. The complex includes the church, the massive bell tower built right next to its west side, the fortified enclosure with towers and bastions, and an older Gothic chapel built into the fortifications. The village's historic centre is also a listed monument.
Of the first church, built in the 14th century, the walled-up west portal survives. The present late Gothic hall church was built around 1480-1486 by the master stonemason Andreas Lapicida of Sibiu. At the same time the complex was strengthened: the choir received a defensive storey, and the north and south entrances were guarded by towers with loopholes and murder holes. The bell was cast in 1515, and work on the fortified enclosure, with walls about 9 metres high, began in 1520. The polyptych altarpiece painted in 1521 by Vincentius is now in the church at Cincu. Stephan Ludwig Roth (1796-1849), educator and campaigner for human rights, was pastor in Moșna.
Inside are Gothic net vaults resting on piers partly built in a spiral pattern, and fine stone carving: the sacristy portal with an ogee arch, a statue of Christ under a canopy, the Archangel Michael on the pulpit canopy, and the late Gothic sacrament house, about ten metres high. The enclosure has a wall-walk carried on arcades, several defence towers and a zwinger divided in two and guarded by a small watchtower. The organ, the hundredth instrument of the Vienna workshop of Carl Hesse, was shown at the 1873 Vienna World Exhibition, installed here in 1874 and brought back into use in 2014.
The complex is a listed historic monument (LMI code SB-II-a-A-12471: church SB-II-m-A-12471.01, enclosure SB-II-m-A-12471.02), and the village's "Historic Centre" is listed as a rural ensemble (SB-II-a-A-12470). The church is presented on the official tourism website of Sibiu County, and the Fortified Churches Foundation gives the Mediaș Lutheran parish and the Mediaș District Consistory as the contact.
Sat Moșna nr. 1, comuna Moșna, județul Sibiu