Fortified Church
RotbavThe church-fortress stands in the centre of the village. The building of a flat-covered Romanesque hall church with choir square and semicircular apse took place around 1300. The tower which collapsed in 2015 had a west-oriented round arch opening. In the 15th century, the bell tower was encased; the west portal was bricked up and access to the church hall was thus blocked. During the reconstruction process, the tower was turned into a fortified keep with loopholes, arrow slits and machicolation on the corbel-supported top floor, it’s sad that today we are not longer able to see this tower. At the middle of 18th century, the choir was reshaped in Baroque style and was decorated with pilasters with classicistic mouldings and with a ribbed vault. The flat church hall ceiling has stucco decoration. An organ gallery was built in the west wing. The church is surrounded by a loopholed and box machicolated enclosing wall that is oval in the south and linear in the north.
Marianne Berbecar +40/727/740/167
Fortified Church
RotbavThe church-fortress stands in the centre of the village. The building of a flat-covered Romanesque hall church with choir square and semicircular apse took place around 1300. The tower which collapsed in 2015 had a west-oriented round arch opening. In the 15th century, the bell tower was encased; the west portal was bricked up and access to the church hall was thus blocked. During the reconstruction process, the tower was turned into a fortified keep with loopholes, arrow slits and machicolation on the corbel-supported top floor, it’s sad that today we are not longer able to see this tower. At the middle of 18th century, the choir was reshaped in Baroque style and was decorated with pilasters with classicistic mouldings and with a ribbed vault. The flat church hall ceiling has stucco decoration. An organ gallery was built in the west wing. The church is surrounded by a loopholed and box machicolated enclosing wall that is oval in the south and linear in the north.
Marianne Berbecar +40/727/740/167
The baroque altar from 1740 has a crucifixion as the main image and above it the risen Christ. The altar fits well into the baroque rebuilt choir.
The stone pulpit from 1740 has the shape of a chalice. Above it is a high-quality baroque canopy from the mid-18th century.
In the 15th century, possibly on the remains of an older ring wall, a new ring wall with an oval ground plan is built. The ring is reinforced by towers. The entrance was through a tower in the southwest of the complex. It was later demolished. A second tower stood south of the church. Today the height of the ring wall is 4-6 meters. The top of the wall is equipped with bretèches alternating with key embrasures.
| 1300 | Construction of a flat-roofed Romanesque hall church with a square chancel and a semicircular apse. |
|---|---|
| 1371 | The village is mentioned for the first time because of a dispute between Brasov and Rotbav on the one hand and Felidoara on the other. Rotbav appears here for the first time as "Ruffa rippa". |
| 1400-1500 | A new ring wall is built with an oval ground plan. The bell tower is fortified and expanded into a keep. |
| 1429 | The Rotbav school is mentioned for the first time in a German-language document. |
| 1432 | Rotbav is "completely burned down" by the Turks. |
| 1510 | 60 householders, 3 widows and 5 poor people live in Rotbav. 4 houses are derelict. There is also a miller, a teacher and a bell ringer in the village. |
| 1599 | An army is camped in Rotbav and has to be supported by the community with grain, bread, wine, meat and other foodstuffs. |
| 1600 | The troops of Michael the Brave kill residents of Rotbav and Maierus. |
| 1603 | During the fighting between the voivode Radu Şerban and the Transylvanian prince Moses Székely, the Brasov Region was plundered and devastated. Rotbav's fortified church is taken on July 18, killing 52 residents. |
| 1611 | The village is plundered and burned down by the troops of Gabriel Báthori and Prince Radu Şerban short time after. |
| 1690 | Imperial troops led by the Prince of Baden demand high war taxes. Rotbav has to pay 100 thalers. Despite this, the village is plundered, the harvest is burned and the cattle are slaughtered. |
| 1846 | A woman from Württemberg who traveled to Rotbav reports that "most of the buildings, including the houses, were thatched and had clay floors". |
| 1907 | The tower clock was installed. It is a work by the Bernhard Zacharia company from Leipzig. |
| 1977 | After the earthquake, the bell tower is consolidated with a concrete structure. |
| 2015 | The tower and keep collapse, destroying part of the church. |
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