Not long ago we went to a road trip, with a special destination and on our way back, we thought why not visit some places we've never been before. As I mentioned before, Transylvania is lucky to have a lot of medieval churches, fortresses and there were quite a few in our way too.
One of these churches we found on our way was the one of Richiș.
Richiș is a village in Biertan commune in Sibiu county, Transylvania, Romania. It is located in the northern part of the county, in the Târnavelor Plateau. The first documentary attestation is from the year 1283, with the name villa Rihini. source
The village is quite small, only has 679 inhabitants and of those only a few are Saxons. According to my information, there's no priest in the church, once a month someone from the nearest city comes to hold a mass. This is survival mode in my opinion and in a few years the church will not be used anymore. It's sad and what is more concerning is that many of the Evangelical churches will have the same faith.
The fortified evangelical Lutheran church in Richiș, in Biertan commune in Sibiu county, was built in the second half of the 14th century. The church appears on the list of historical monuments 2010, with the following objectives:
- Evangelical church, from the second half of the 14th century - c. XVI.
- Fortified enclosure (fragment), with tower and gate tower (bell tower), built between 1500 and 1525.
- Evangelical parish house, from the 16th - 18th centuries.
In Richiș there is a very interesting Gothic basilica over 500 years old. Originally the current church was a Cistercian monastery transformed in 1400 into a Catholic church. The monument is composed of a polygonal choir, with a sacristy in the north and an altar on the south side, on the west side rises the basilica body, composed of three naves, separated by massive octagonal pillars. source
The good thing about these old churches is that most, if not all have a high tower, which is visible from the main road. Even if you don't know there's a church where you are, you can spot it easily. This is how we got to visit these churches I'm going to post about in the upcoming period.
The bad thing is that at the time of our visit, which was 5pm on Saturday, the church was closed. There was a phone number on the door, to call the administrator, but there was no time for that.
Both the church and the tower look like would need a good renovation work, which is less likely to happen in the near future, unless a big donation will happen.
The entrance is possible through the bell tower, the tall tower you see on the photo and this is the door. The church is more than 500 years old, I don't know how old this door is, but it's old for sure. You also need to watch your head as even an average height person can hit their head.
The door handle deserves your attention. I've seen this type of door handle before, at medieval structures. It's not easy to open a door with this door handle though. Maybe it's due to the age of the handle and door, or it has never been easy, I don't know.
The church is on the corner of the street, so you can walk around and see the church from almost every angle. As you can see, the tower is separated from the church.
These (fortress) churches were usually built on hills. There's no hill here in Richiș, just a slight rise, but there's a wall surrounding the church.
I took a peek inside the courtyard through the fence, to see the church door and took a photo. The door must be nice, judging from the portion visible on the photo, built in typical gothic style you see throughout Europe.
The reason I wanted to visit the church is that there are concerts held there, mostly organ concerts. Judging from how the village looks like, most likely the participants are not many, but still, it's a good way to promote culture. Most of these old, evangelical churches have an organ, mot of them are not in perfect shape, but still, it's good place for an organ concert. Proper concert halls are not on every corner. The entry fee can serve to finance some of the maintenance costs.
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