Name: Fortified Church Hărman
Address: The village is located 13 km northeast of Brasov. The road network of the village consists of two parallel streets in east-west direction and one in north-south direction. At the intersection, the streets form a square where the fortified church stands., Hărman, Romania
Telephone: +40/729/745/210

Fortified Church Hărman

Fortified Church

Hărman

The church-fortress stands on flat ground in a square in the centre of the village. It was surrounded by a moat in the Middle Ages. A three-aisled Romanesque basilica dedicated to Saint Nicholas was built in the 13th century. The groined-vaulted choir has a semicircular apse. The ogival chancel arch has demi-columns with Corinthian capitals. There are rectangular pillars with round and ogival arches between the nave and the aisles. There are round windows with quatrefoil tracery in the clerestory. The vault ribs are supported by consoles which represent human heads. Demi-columns are attached to the pillars in the nave of the basilica. The nave was re-vaulted after a fire in 1593. The engaged pilasters and the side walls support the ogival barrel vault with penetrations and decorated with a network of stuccoed ribs.

Visitation contact:

Dan Ioan Ilica-Popescu +40/729/745/210

Fortified Church Hărman

Fortified Church

Hărman

Visitation contact:

Dan Ioan Ilica-Popescu +40/729/745/210

Organ

An organ was built in 1714 from the donation of the Swedish officer Gustav Soldau. When the organ was enlarged in 1888, parts of the Swedish organ were used. It has two manuals, pedal and 19 registers.

Altar

An altar is donated by Swedish soldiers in 1710. This altar was replaced in 1787 by today's baroque altar. In the center of the altar is an image of the Crucifixion. It is flanked by columns and figures of the apostles. The coronation shows Moses and Aaron. The altar is the work of the sculptor Franz Eberhard and the painter Mohr from Brasov.

Chapel

There is a chapel east of the defence wall, which was probably built at the beginning of the 14th century. It is buttress-supported and cross-ribbed-vaulted. The actual chapel, completely decorated with mural paintings, stands on raftered ceiling above a cellar.

Bell tower

The ground floor of the bell tower opens on three sides via lancet arches. The west front is built of quarry stones. There is a west gallery on the second floor of the belfry. There are two gemel windows for each cardinal point of the belfry on the fifth storey of the bell tower. There are loopholes in the two storeys above the belfry. The jambstones of the lancet arch west portal are segmented by six bead and pear-shaped mouldings without capital frieze.

Ring wall

An oval enclosing wall was built around the church, as early as the 13th century. This wall is fortified and supplemented by the building of a second defence wall in the 15th century. The 12m-high inner defence wall is strengthened by six four-storey towers. Some of them are interconnected via a 4-5m-high zwinger wall. The church-fortress is surrounded by a moat. There is a wall-wide defensive corridor with loopholes and brattices on top of the wall. The two-storey gate tower was locked and protected by an oak gate and a portcullis. In 1814, the drawbridge and the wooden bridge across the moat were removed and replaced with the present-day pillar-supported arcaded passage.

History

1200-1300	Construction of a three-nave Romanesque basilica.
1240	First documented mention. King Béla IV gives the Cistercian Order the patronage of four churches in the Brașov region, including Hărman.
1300-1400	Construction of the bell tower.
1421	The king decreed Brașov and six villages in the Brașov region, which suffered from the Turkish invasion, including Hărman, to pay no Martin's interest for one year.
1510	In Hărman there are 132 families, 7 widows, a settler, 7 paupers, a miller, a bell ringer, 9 shepherds and a schoolmaster. 5 houses are deserted.
1552	The Moldovan voivode Stefan plunders and burns Hărman, but cannot take the fortified church.
1593	The village, including the fortified church, burns down. 22 people are killed.
1595	The church receives a new Gothic barrel vault with lunettes and net rib decoration, which can still be seen today.
1600-03	The village is burned down three times by different troops.
1612	Honigberg and other Burzenland communities defected from Kronstadt and worshiped Gabriel Báthori. The Honigberger changed sides. Then Prince Báthori advances with an army of 7000 men in front of the fortified church and demands submission and surrender of the castle. Despite heavy shelling, the Honigbergers manage to hold the fortified church.
1658	Turks, Tatars, Muntenians, Moldovans and Cossacks come to Burzenland and burn the villages. However, they cannot take the fortified church of Honigberg.
1710-1711	Swedish troops of King Karl XII. come to Honigberg. They give money for the altar and the organ.
1718-1719	449 community residents die from the plague.
1753	The community is in debt and mortgaged parts of the community field.
1791	The wooden drawbridge that bridged the moat is removed.
1794	The bell tower has a pointed roof with four corner towers. The old walkway will be removed.
1848	Imperial crowds barricade themselves in the castle. The Szeklers fighting them set up a cannon in front of the gate and shoot a bullet through all five gates, which gets stuck in the church wall. The place is plundered, the remaining residents are murdered, the community treasury is broken into and robbed.
1849	At Honigberg there is a battle between Szeklers and Russian detachments. The Szeklers are routed.
1977 & 1986	The earthquakes of 1977 and 1986 left cracks in the bell tower, which led to the addition of steel keys to the tower from 1999-2000.

Fortified Church Hărman

Fortified Church Hărman

Visitation contact:

Fortified Church Hărman

Visitation contact:

Organ

Altar

Chapel

Bell tower

Ring wall

History

Places in the surroundings