Valea Viilor Fortified Church

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.

The fortified church in Ighişu Nou was built in the 14th/15th century as a hall tower-less Gothic church with narrow chancel. The chancel was heightened in the late 15th century with an additional defence level. A tower was constructed in the front hall, with the staircase built in the thickness of its walls. The small octagonal stair tower on the northern side has been built only later. Similar to many churches in the Mediaş area, this one also preserves some very valuable stone masonry: blooming roses on the impost of the tracery on the chancel windows and a very rich ornamentation on the profiled western portal. The massive western tower still maintains its original hip roof and the wooden defence level.
The church is surrounded by a complete defence wall with the remains of a fortified granary on the north side, as well as a horseshoe-shaped bastion on the southern side, which closes the narrow outer bailey.

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.