Black Fortress (Codlea)

The Black Fortress (Feketehalom, recorded in medieval documents as "castro Feketewholum") was built by the Teutonic Knights, who settled in the Bârsa Land between 1211 and 1225. To defend the territory, the order built five fortresses, including the Black Fortress, located on a 980 m hilltop at the foot of Măgura Codlei, along the so-called "Saxons' Road" (Sachsenweg), which linked the Bârsa Land to the Sibiu province. The fortress is first documented in 1265. Two years later, in 1267, the Hungarian crown prince Stephen took refuge here, fleeing his father, King Béla IV, and was forced to surrender only after a lengthy resistance. After the Teutonic Knights withdrew from the Bârsa Land, the fortress came under the protection of the Hungarian king. In 1307, Count Salomon of Brassou, then in rebellion, seized the fortress; it was handed back to the king in 1331. Archaeological research has uncovered numerous iron artifacts (nails, swords, arrowheads, horseshoes) dated to the 11th-14th centuries, as well as a breastplate and fragments of chainmail from the early feudal period.