Ștefan's Tower, Baia Mare

Ștefan's Tower stands in Piața Cetății in Baia Mare, between Crișan and 1 Mai streets, next to Piața Libertății. It was the bell tower of the Roman Catholic parish church of St Stephen, first recorded in 1347 and consecrated in 1387, the only two-naved church in medieval north-western Transylvania, 50.6 m long and 19 m wide. The tower was added on the south-west side of the church from 1446, on the initiative of John Hunyadi (Iancu de Hunedoara), to commemorate his 1442 victory over the Ottomans on the Ialomița, and completed in 1468 under King Matthias Corvinus. The tower and church were repeatedly struck by lightning and damaged by fire. In 1619 the tower was given a tall square-based pyramid roof with four turrets, and in 1628 a clock with a moon dial was installed. The church passed to the Reformed congregation in 1588. Being in ruins, it was demolished in 1847, and only the tower was kept. After a fire in 1869 the tower was rebuilt in 1898-1899 in neo-Gothic style, the form it has today. In 2007 a storm damaged the slate roof, which was replaced with a copper one in 2008. The tower is built of stone and is over 40 metres high (Romanian Wikipedia gives about 50 m). The entrance is through the south door: a spiral stone staircase leads to the first level, then wooden stairs climb to the gallery, once used by firemen to watch over the town. Since the 2011-2015 rehabilitation, visitors can climb the 165 steps to the gallery. The main bell, weighing over two tonnes, was cast in Arad in 1561 and installed in the tower in 1925. A second bell, from 1869, is cracked and kept only as an ornament, and the old mechanical clock has been replaced with an electronic mechanism. The "Ștefan's Tower" ensemble is a historic monument (LMI code MM-II-a-A-04436) comprising the tower (MM-II-m-A-04436.01) and the foundations of the Gothic church (MM-II-m-A-04436.02). The outline and dimensions of the church, reconstructed through archaeological excavation, are marked in the paving of the square.