Former Assumption of Our Lady Church, Black Church
History
The church was built between 1383 and 1424, it was the largest church in the former Hungary (now the largest in Romania) and was originally dedicated to the Assumption of Mary. Above its southern gate is the coat of arms of King Matthias of Hungary and his wife Beatrice of Aragon. It has been a Lutheran church since the Reformation. Next to it stands a statue of the great reformer Honterus János. It stands in the square called Honterus Court.
A popular belief is that soot from the 1689 fire gave the Black Church its black colour, and hence its name. However, 21st-century investigations have found no evidence of fire damage; the church was blackened simply by environmental influences. It should be noted that the name 'Black Church' was not used until the late 19th century.
The church was built between 1383 and 1477, on the site of the church of St Catherine, the parish church of Újbrassó destroyed during a Tatar raid, which had been the centre of a deanery from 1295. The parish priest Thomas Sander is credited with starting its construction. In 1384, Kaplai Demeter, Archbishop of Esztergom, and in 1399, Pope Boniface IX granted it a letter of indulgence to provide financial support for the construction. By 1408 the sanctuary was completed. From its completion it was the main parish church of the town dedicated to the Virgin Mary. In 1421, an attack by the Turks set back construction. Then, in 1422, Pope Martin V supported its rebuilding with a letter of indulgence. In 1444, Hunyadi János forgave the town’s duty of St. Martin's Day, which could be used for the construction of the church. In gratitude, the Hunyadi coat of arms was placed on a column of the nave. By 1475, the construction of the church was probably completed.
Originally designed as a two-towered church, the completed western tower was finally consecrated in 1514.
In 1542, at the time of the Reformation, the town was taken over by the Lutherans. In October 1542, the first German-language Lutheran service in Transylvania was held here. In 1544, on Luther's personal recommendation, Johannes Honterus was elected pastor. On 21 April 1689, it burnt down in a fire attributed by the contemporaries to arson by the imperial army. In 1710-1714, the galleries of the aisles were built, for the aprentices and assistants. The church was damaged again in the earthquake of 1738.
In 1750 the great bell fell from the tower. The church was rebuilt between 1762 and 1772 by master craftsmen from Danzig, when the present vault was also built under the organisation and direction of Stephan Closius, a doctor and town councillor. The present organ was built between 1836 and 1839, and the new altar in 1866.
The restoration work started before the First World War by the National Inspectorate for Monuments was interrupted. The church was restored between 1924 and 25 under the direction of Albert Schuller, and then between 1937 and 44 and between 1984 and 1999.
It is a three-nave Gothic hall church. It is 89 m long, 38 m wide, the nave is 42 m high and the tower is 65 m high. There were probably two side chapels at the west and east ends of the nave until 1656. On the exterior, every second pillar is decorated with a replica of a statue from the same period as the church was built (the originals are kept in the church). The statues depict St John the Baptist, St Michael the Archangel, St James the Apostle, St Nicholas (?), the parish priest Thomas Sander, the founder of the church (?), St Luke the Evangelist, St Paul the Apostle, Christ as Salvator Mundi (Saviour of the World), St Peter and the former patron saint, the Virgin Mary, with the first coat of arms of Brassó at her feet.
Before the fire of 1689, it had 22 side altars, and the present high altar, in the style of the church, was built in 1865 to the design of the town architect Peter Bartesch. The central altarpiece (the Sermon on the Mount) is by the Weimar painter Friedrich Martersteig. The Honterus memorial stone in front of the left column of the altar stands on the spot where the reformer was buried. Behind the altar is the tombstone of Thomas Sander, the parish priest who founded the church. Its pulpit and the pews for the councillors were made in 1696, and the sanctuary pews in 1700. The pillar opposite the pulpit bears the Hunyadi coat of arms. On the north wall of the sanctuary is a wall chronicle, Breve Chronicon Daciae, which records events in Transylvania between 1143 and 1571. On the east wall of the south aisle is a picture of Fritz Schullerus: the councillors and the so-called 'hundred fathers' (the town representatives) swearing an oath on 26 December 1543 on Honterus' Book of the Reformation.
Frescoes from 1477 in the south entrance hall depict the Annunciation (the so-called Schwarze Madonna), the coat of arms of King Matthias of Hungary and his wife Beatrice, the Adoration of the Kings, St Catherine of Alexandria and St Barbara. An exhibition on the history of the church can be seen under the tower.
It had seven bells until 1914, when three of them were dismantled and melted down to cast cannons. Its 7,300 kg great bell is the largest movable bell in present day Romania and originally dates from 1514, but was recast in 1858 after the fire in 1689 and after it fell from the tower in 1750. It was built by Carl August Buchholz from Berlin between 1836 and 1839.
The church houses the largest collection of Anatolian carpets in Europe outside Turkey. The 119 carpets, made in the 16th and 18th centuries, were bought by Saxon merchants travelling through Turkey and donated to the parish. Today they decorate the church interior. Other treasures of the church include a baptismal font made in 1476 by a master craftsman from Segesvár and donated by the merchant Johannes Reudel, a Gothic cast-iron sacristy and two chalices made in 1504. On the south side is a statue of Johannes Honterus, by Harro Magnussen, from 1898.