The medieval church dedicated to Saint James stands in the centre of the locality place, north-east of the market place. It is a 15th century construction with a rectangular church hall and a flat polygonal choir apse. The choir and the hall have buttress-supported walls. In the 17th century, the Gothic vaulting of the hall was replaced with a coffered ceiling. There is a Gothic ogival portal in the south wing and a Gothic portal with corbelled lintel and profiled framing in the west wing. The vestry portal, too, has Gothic profiling. The northwestern lancet window of the choir is traceried. There is a Late-Gothic sacrament alcove in the choir. The Baroque bell tower in the southern wing of the church was built in its current form in 1782. Corinthian columns, a richly-profiled architrave, a crowning and carved overlays decorate the 1709 altar. The galleries, the pews, the offertory box and the epitaphs were mainly made in the 18th century. A valuable 1726 organ with Baroque front case in swallow nest form stands in the northeast corner of the church hall.
Karl Hellwig +40/722/208/764
The medieval church dedicated to Saint James stands in the centre of the locality place, north-east of the market place. It is a 15th century construction with a rectangular church hall and a flat polygonal choir apse. The choir and the hall have buttress-supported walls. In the 17th century, the Gothic vaulting of the hall was replaced with a coffered ceiling. There is a Gothic ogival portal in the south wing and a Gothic portal with corbelled lintel and profiled framing in the west wing. The vestry portal, too, has Gothic profiling. The northwestern lancet window of the choir is traceried. There is a Late-Gothic sacrament alcove in the choir. The Baroque bell tower in the southern wing of the church was built in its current form in 1782. Corinthian columns, a richly-profiled architrave, a crowning and carved overlays decorate the 1709 altar. The galleries, the pews, the offertory box and the epitaphs were mainly made in the 18th century. A valuable 1726 organ with Baroque front case in swallow nest form stands in the northeast corner of the church hall.
Karl Hellwig +40/722/208/764
The altar, erected in 1709, has a top divided by four columns into three niches. The cranked architrave supports the crowning, which consists of a central image flanked by two sinuous columns. The center of the altar is a statue of the Crucified. In the flanking niches are sculptures of Paul and Peter. The bust of God the Father with a crown of rays and a globe appears in the crowning piece, with reliefs of the four evangelists to the side. Baroque ornamentation, consisting of angel heads, cartouches, veil boards, completes the decor.
Epitaphs from 1777 and 1802 commemorate deceased members of respected bourgeois families. In the sacristy is the tombstone of Emerentia Weihrauch, wife of Johann Lutsch from Sibiu, who died in 1631.
The organ with 2 manuals, pedal and 15 stops was installed in 1726 by an unknown organ builder. It stands in the corner of the north wall and the triumphal arch and has a baroque case in the shape of a swallow's nest. The organ from the neighboring village Drăușeni was placed on the west gallery.
The church owns 17 Asia knotted carpets.
Remains of pre-Reformation frescoes can be seen on the south wall above the gallery. They depict life-size groups of human figures and bear a resemblance to oriental painting.
The Gothic pointed arch portal in the south of the hall has a three-fold stepped robe with coves, a thick round bar and two rectangular bars.
The churchyard is bordered by the school and rectory. In between, the remains of a ring wall have been preserved.
A bell tower was built in 1730, it collapsed 35 years later and in 1782 a new bell tower was rebuilt south of the church in the Jesuit Baroque style. In the bell tower hangs a bell dated 1488. It bears the inscription "sancti Spiritus dicit nobis grada anno Domini m. gc. 8 VIII." The tower clock is dated 1847.
1289 | The first mention of the stream in Rupea ("rivulus Kozd"), after which the administrative region with its seat in Rupea is named. |
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1340 | The parish priests of the Rupea region send a petition to the Transylvanian bishop of Alba Iulia, emphasizing that their villages and churches have been devastated. They ask the bishop to release them from back payments and promise to pay the bishop 26 silver marks annually. |
1349 | The place is first mentioned as "Rukbas". |
1400-1500 | Construction of the Gothic hall church. |
1431-32 | The Count of Szekler passes through the Rupea chair and causes damage worth 7000 florins. The king in Sienna orders that the Szekler count has to compensate the damage. |
1600-1601 | The people of Rupea are weakened by a conflagration and cannot participate in the Sibiu province's deployment. The people of Rupea ask the Sibiu Council for help against the Romanians and Szekler from Fagaras. |
1600-1700 | The hall's Gothic vault is replaced by a coffered ceiling. |
1602-04 | Troops of Bäthori and Szekely, appointed prince by Basta, pass through the town and the chair and have to be entertained. The people of Rupea give a silver can worth 40 florins to the court church in Prague and a horse worth 45 florins to Basta. In the following year a troop of the Wallachian voivode passes through Rupea. He receives from the chair 92 ducats and 106 florins for the rations of his troops. After that there are also imperial soldiers (Walloons) who have to be fed as well. |
1605 | Thirty people of Rupea - respected men - are beheaded. |
1630 | In a local ordinance for the Rupea chair, it is stated that the villages are gated and barred. Roads and bridges are to be guarded, and furnaces and smoke stacks are to be kept in good condition. The youth is forbidden to party at night. |
1639 | At the invitation of the people of Rupea, Prince George Rákóczy I comes to Rupea and is picked up with 416 horses. From now on he visits the people of Rupea frequently. |
1689 | Five companies of " German peoples" take up winter quarters in Rupea, Cața and Drăușeni. They have to be supplied with wheat, meat, wine and oats. |
1698 | It is stated that 1099 fathers of families live in the Rupea chair. 333 fathers of families have emigrated and live on county land. The debt burden in the chair is close to 100000 florins, for which 14169 fl. of interest must be paid annually. |
1708 | Both the imperials and the Kurucs demand auxiliary services and extort money from the people of Rupea. Kurucs invade the Rupea chair and plunder many villages. |
1714 | Swedish troops of King Charles XII. move through Reupea and are entertained. |
1719 | 623 people die from the plague. |
1782 | It is reported that most of the houses in Rupeaare built of wood and thatched. |
1784 | The Rupea chair is dissolved as an administrative unit and attached to the Fagaras county. |
1869-1873 | Construction of the railway line. |
1900 | Rupea is a large commune in Târnava-Mare County and has 2968 inhabitants. |
1930-1931 | To fund repairs to the church, 16 Persian rugs are sold. |