Landscape Inside Bartolomeu (Bartholomä, Bartholomew) Fortified Church, Saxon, Romania Stock Photography

Church of St. Bartholomew is the oldest building in the city. It was built in the thirteenth century and was known as the Church of three orphan, who according to legend and all they had left the church and were buried under the altar. The three-nave with massive buttress walls, surrounded by wall outlasted the Turkish invasion and the great fire of 1689. With its more than 150 well preserved fortified churches of a great variety of architectural styles (out of an original 300 fortified churches), south-eastern Transylvania region in Romania currently has one of the highest numbers of existing fortified churches from the 13th to 16th centuries. Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Villages with Fortified Churches in Transylvania are seven Saxon villages founded by the Transylvanian Saxons. They are dominated by fortified churches and characterized by a specific settlement pattern that has been preserved since the late Middle Ages.