Archaeology - ROMANIA
History - Medieval Times

Medieval Times

Case study

The fortified church at Bunesti (Bodendorf)

A 1337 document shows that Bodendorf played a leading role in the Schäßburger See as Petrus, the son of Stephan "de Boda" was a Senator of the community. The German name 'Budendorff', which derives from the old German name Budo or Bodo, first appears in a document from 1452. At a "Meeting of the Seven Sees" in Hermannstadt Mychel Gred de Budendorff represented the Schäßburger See alongside the king's judge. The census of 1488 places Bodendorf as the third biggest community in the see after Keisd and Arken, with 88 landlords, two shepherds, two mills, one schoolmaster and three paupers.

The first reference to the Bodendorf church appears in 1256. The columned basilica of the transitional period was built at the beginning of the 14th century and had two transepts and a nave, but no tower. The chancel had a cross-vaulted ceiling and opened into the originally flat-roofed nave, with a pointed arch. The nave was connected to the transepts with five nearly round arches. The only door was at the west end.

The tax register for Schäßburger shows tax exemptions for the years 1505-1508 for Bodendorf as a result of building work on the church. The following can only refer to the fortification works: " Bodendorff relaxiti (sunt) ad fabricam ecclesiae fl(orin) 21 den(ar) 12"

It is difficult to determine in which order the fortifications of the chancel, central nave and bell-tower were completed. It appears that the original intention was to build a bell-tower as an extension to the nave, but only three floors are preserved today. Despite careful investigation of the remains, it is impossible to determine whether the tower was completed and then destroyed, or whether the building work was broken off in order to attach the tower base to the fortification of the nave.

To facilitate the building of the fortified gallery, typical for this area, the transepts and sacristy from around the choir and central nave were removed. The gallery walls rest on arches spanning the gaps between the columns. The arches of the central nave were bricked up, the nave and bell-tower surrounded by 15 pillars carrying round arches at the same height as the top of the wall. In the 40cm wide gap between the wall and the row of arches, murder holes were hidden. Above the defending arches there was a fortified gangway of timber, which was removed in 1804 and therefore no pictorial records are available.

The fortified gallery for the chancel was built on a ledge protruding 55cm from the wall and was 230cm high. Each of the long walls has three murder holes 24x33cm wide. There is also a murder hole in each of the short walls. In the one-brick wide wall of the chancel fortification there are seven arrow-slits (75cm high and 25cm wide) with wider niches on the inside walls. Inside the corners of the room are strengthened with pillars, with corresponding decorative niches on the outside. The weight bearing stones for the fortifications are also protruding on the inside and this serves as a support for a platform of beams. There is a doorway between the defensive galleries above the chancel and the nave only 50cm wide and 105cm high and so easily defended by one man. To the side of this are high, rectangular arrow-slits, 15cm wide. This leads us to believe that the defensive gallery above the choir was the last refuge for the defenders, from which they could fire on an enemy who had already reached the nave attic.

On the southwest corner of the nave is a small spiral stairway tower, built of stone and tile, with forty-two wooden steps leading to the fortified gallery. There is no axis, but the steps are held together with wooden rods. This stair tower hides one of the old nave arches, whose round arches can still be clearly seen. This leads us to believe the galleries and the stair tower were built before the chancel and nave were re-arched in 1519,according to the inscription on one of the arches. As in the nave, the arches are not resting on the wall columns but on thin, strengthening brick wall that runs along the long walls. The start of the stone ribbed vaults, which form a net of stars, is hidden and can only be guessed at from the position of the stucco on the ceiling. Later on, niches with pointed arches were inserted into the thin wall, which narrows the nave, in order to put up choir-stalls along the walls.

These niches must not be confused with the earlier, bricked up arches! The two side entrances of the church were created during the fortification process, as the West portal and the West door of the tower were closed off. An arrow slit was created in the latter. The ground floor of the tower, with its brick cross-vaulted roof, forms an entrance porch to the church. As the two upper floors of the tower have arrow slits, it can be assumed that it was intended as a defensive structure from the outset. It is likely that the plan to make it taller was given up when the larger fortified gallery of the nave was built to include the tower; one single roof covers all these fortifications.

In 1804 the wooden walkway was removed, probably due to rot, and the roof was built 200cm lower, directly on to the defensive arches. A small bell-tower was built on top of the original tower base in 1847, and its style does not match the rest of the church. A flat roofed sacristy was also added.

In 1680 wooden balconies (Glater) were added to the sides of the narrow nave in order to increase the seating capacity. They are painted with flower ornaments and phrases. On the south balustrade the old painting is intact, and is signed, "Magister operis fuit Johann Rößler anno 1680". The two side galleries are connected with a shorter one above it which is dated 1775, so it is likely that both west galleries were made in that year. Their decoration can probably be credited to Georgius Rößler, the grandson of Johann Rößler. In 1808 a second higher gallery was installed on the north wall. On its lower edge the following inscription in gothic lettering can be read: "Zum Denkmal seiner Dankbarkeit gegen Gott und diese Gemeinde stiftet dieses der Fremdling Johann Ludwig 1808" (as a monument of his gratitude to God and this community this was donated by the foreigner Johann Ludwig 1808). During the painting of the upper North gallery, the decoration of the lower one was also renewed. Particularly valuable are the signatures and dates of the Bodendorf paintings, because paintings in other churches can be dated by comparison. During the installation of the galleries the old gothic windows were also enlarged.

The classical wooden altar erected in 1805 covers part of the wonderful paintings in the choir. The installation of the electric motor for the Rococo organ above the altar badly damaged these paintings. The apostles were painted on the walls of the choir with two figures on the short walls and three on each of the walls of the choir. The surviving portrait of the apostle John shows that the painting is of Byzantine tradition done by a Romanian artist at the beginning of the 16th century. They are very simple, stylized, paintings, whose drawing and colouring is reminiscent of the monasteries in Moldova, particularly with the red-framed blue background. The size and simplicity of the depiction lends the figures monumentality. During the Reformation the wall decorations were painted over.

The defences surrounding the church are, in their present form, from the beginning of the 16th century and were probably built at the same time as the fortification of the church.

The many-cornered, nearly round defensive wall points to an earlier surrounding wall for the church. Of the five bastions that protrude from the wall the one in the Northwest defends the West Side of the Low Church hill.

From the courtyard there are three separate entrances in the east tower wall, leading to each of the three floors. In each of the three free-standing walls of the ground floor there are deep arrow slits surrounded in wood, roofed by beams, which can be closed by turning a mechanism. The two upper storeys have small windows in the west wall, which indicate living quarters; there is also a chimney belonging to a stove in the Northeast corner. The walls have keyhole arrow slits. On the outside of this tower the year 1545 is inscribed. On the inside the date 1644 is scratched into the plaster wall. Brick and red painted inscriptions show that during times of siege people lived here and suffered in the cramped conditions - on the West wall of the second storey can be read: "Amen, amen dico vobis, post haec videbitis coelum apertu.anno 1644" (Amen,amen I tell you, after this you will see heaven open.1644).

On the South wall can be read: "Die Geißel macht strimen, aber ein böses Maul zerschmettert alle" (The whip makes sores, but one evil mouth destroys all). On the North wall stands: "Non operantur malum qui in vitutis ambulant" (Those who walk in virtue do nothing evil). The walls and window frames are very primitive, almost like children's drawings, painted in black and red. The gatehouse, a long rectangular building protruding from the Southwest corner of the wall, stands above the entrance tunnel. Two thirds of this are roofed with a rounded barrel-roof, while the last third before the portcullis and gate is roofed only with loose wooden boards that could be removed and an enemy attacked from above. The upper storey, with arrow slits and murder holes, originally had a half-timbered fortified gangway, which was later removed. The roof of the gatehouse was then rebuilt lower down; its West side covers a piece of the high arch, which corresponded to the second storey. The diagonal angle of the driveway is today compensated for by a set of concrete steps down the middle. The North and South towers are very similar, have three storeys with keyhole arrow-slits, and two entrances, one above the other, in the courtyard side. The first and second floors were connected: the third could be reached via a removable ladder. The small east tower has collapsed. The surrounding wall, 150cm wide at its base, has a ledge at the height of 400cm, which was the original 100cm wide walkway behind the battlements. In the 18th century open storage sheds were erected around the inside of the wall to house the grain stores. They rest on the ledge of the walkway and down in the courtyard. The roofs of these sheds form a continuous area with the roofs of the towers which face the yard and thereby give the courtyard a wonderfully uniform appearance.

Attached to the gatehouse and the East tower was a rectangular courtyard, which also contained a well. The West wall of this courtyard has been completely removed, while low ruins on the South and East sides remain. The south bastion of this courtyard, intended to contain herds of cattle, was converted first into a school and then, in the 19th century, to a priest's house. Between 1964 and 1966 the fortified church underwent serious restoration.

Today the church is in relatively good condition considering the fact that it has not been regularly used by the public for many years. There are, however, many areas of damage to the church building both inside and out and to the surrounding fortifications.

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