Şeica Mică Fortified Church

Built in the 13th century as an unfortified three-aisles basilica with apse, the church was protected through a curtain wall with defence towers since the 15th century. Later the church itself was fortified by dismantling the northern aisle. A brick-made barrel vault replaced the wooden ceiling of the nave. In place of the apse a chancel with polygonal end was erected in the middle of the 16th century. In addition it was heightened with two defence levels. Some ornamental paintings have been preserved on the outside of their walls. In the year 1800 the church was extended to the west by one third, adding the bell tower to the western facade six years later. The fortification was demolished completely 100 years later. On the eastern side the school replaced the curtain wall.
The barrel vault of the nave and the cross vault in the aisle have been preserved until today. Well worth seeing are the Baroque pulpit and the altar of 1776.

In the early 14th Century an early Gothic basilica was built in the middle of the village. The aisles were removed and the arcades were bricked up in 1500, when the church was fortified. Above the chancel a defence tower was erected. The chancel’s polygonal closure was heightened with two defence levels and the buttresses were connected by arches, in order to build a machicoulis gallery behind them. The ensemble was strengthened by a surrounding wall in 1502, completed by a gate building and an adjoining bacon Chamber on the north-west side . The tower was heightened in 1827 and received its striking pyramidal roof. At the same time its defence systems together with the defence level of the chancel were removed . The typical western gable of the church was erected in the same time with the renewal of the roof in 1854. Inside the church the mainly 18th-century furniture is still preserved.

The Evangelic church in Axente Sever is an important witness of the hard times the region had to bare. Therefore not only the ring wall was strengthened for defensive purposes, but the church building itself was also fortified. The massive tower between hall and chancel, dating back to the 14th century has a parapet walk on the highest level and on the first and second floors simple, elongated loopholes that end as a niche towards the interior. Both the chancel and the nave were heightened with defence levels with loopholes. The arches built between the reinforced buttresses on the western facade support the defence level. A portcullis, whose guiding slides are still visible today, protected the western portal. Along the outer wall there are partially preserved and reconstructed storage rooms which are used as guest rooms today.