Câlnic Fortress

Câlnic Fortress (German: Burg Kelling) stands in the village of Câlnic, seat of the commune of the same name, in southern Alba County, about 13 km from Sebeș and 49 km from Sibiu. Unlike many fortresses, it does not crown a hill but sits on low ground right by the Câlnic stream, a short distance from the main street. Around 1270 the nobleman Chyl of Kelling, whose family gave the village its German name, built a residential keep here, known as the Siegfried Tower. The tower was surrounded by an oval wall with a guard tower to the south and a gate tower to the north, and the whole was protected by a water-filled moat and a drawbridge. In 1430 the last count sold the fortress to the villagers. The Saxon community added a second wall and used it as a refuge during Ottoman raids; a chapel was built in the courtyard at the end of the 15th century. In 1658 the Ottomans destroyed the village but did not take the fortress. Today visitors can see the two oval rings of walls (the inner one is about 7 m high), the barbican at the entrance, the gate tower of about 24 m with four bells, the keep, the chapel with fragments of early 16th century frescoes, the well and the storerooms in the courtyard. The fortress was restored between 1961 and 1964. The keep houses a museum with collections of folk and medieval art (icons on glass and wood, ceramics, furniture, folk costumes), and its cellar holds an exhibition on winegrowing; the chapel hosts lectures. The 15th century Lutheran church stands on the hill above the village. The ensemble is a listed historic monument (LMI code AB-II-a-A-00196) and, since 1999, part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Villages with Fortified Churches in Transylvania. Since 1995 it has been administered by a foundation of Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca. Did you know that the defence tower in the south-east of the inner wall is also known as the "bacon tower" (Fleischerturm)? Once the fortress lost its military role, the villagers kept their bacon in this cool, airy tower.