St. Margaret of Antioch Lutheran Church
Biserica Evanghelică Sfânta Margareta
St. Margaret of Antioch Lutheran Church
Biserica Evanghelică Sfânta Margareta
Address:
Piaţa Castelului 1
Historical Hungarian county:
Nagy-Küküllő
GPS coordinates:
46.1652160872, 24.3510950849
History
The church is one of the most important Gothic monuments of Transylvania. The first record of the Medgyes parish dates back to 1283, when the parish priest Ádám was mentioned. The next mention dates back to 1414, when the church was dedicated to Saint Margaret of Antioch. In 1446, Pope Eugene IV granted the church a indulgence. It became Lutheran in the 16th century. It was the venue of several Transylvanian country assemblies and in 1576, Prince Báthory István of Transylvania received here the Polish embassy offering him the crown of Poland.
According to excavations, the church was built in the 13th century, with a larger sanctuary added in the 14th century. The north aisle was built in the 14th century, the south aisle in the late 15th century. The present sanctuary was built around 1430. The church has one of the largest surface medieval wall paintings in the Carpathian Basin. It has a Gothic pulpit and winged altar and a 14th century bronze baptismal font. The walls of the sanctuary contain tombstones from the 16th and 17th centuries. Its organ dates from 1678 and was enlarged to its present form in 1732.
Its leaning tower is the symbol of the town. Between 1495 and 1498, the tower was raised by three storeys to a height of 68.5 metres, exceeding the height of the St Stephen's Church in Vienna. However, due to soft ground, it started to lean and now it slants 2.28 metres from the vertical, making it the 12th tallest leaning tower in the world.
The church is surrounded by a ring of walls fortified with five towers, the construction of which probably dates back to the 15th century.
It is said that King Matthias of Hungary had Vlad Tepes, former voivode of Wallachia, imprisoned in this tower in 1476.
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