Fortified Church Vulcan

Although Vulcan belongs to the smaller municipalities in the Brasov region, the church-fortress displays a relatively large enclosure with diameters ranging from 67m to 49m. One can assume that the chancel arch comes from an earlier Romanesque church to which a Gothic, buttress-supported, stone-rib-vaulted choir was built in the 15th century. The ribs rest on human-masked corbels. The church was destroyed by Gabriel Bátory’s troops (Prince of Transylvania) in 1611 and left in ruins for 54 years. It was rebuilt in 1665. The church hall got a coffered ceiling. The present-day bell tower was attached to the west side of the church in 1793-1794. It displays a characteristic roof, consisting of a tiled stump, followed by the belfry and the top of the polygonal spire, which in ground plan changes from a square to an octagon. Segments of an earlier oval enclosing wall are extant in the north. The defence wall is linear to the south and to the west and displays a loopholed and box machicolated outjutting tower, erected at the intersection of the two lines. There are other towers, too, that were built in front of the north wall. Storerooms have been preserved in the north and in the south.