This impressive
cathedral was built in 1520 on the place of an old
Romanic basilica from the 12th century.
With five pointed towers it is one of the most impressive
buildings in Sibiu, the tower is nearly 74 m high,
the tallest building in Transylvania.
In front of the cathedral the statue of Georg Daniel
Teutsch, Bishop of Sibiu, erected in 1899.
The simple, stark interior is in total contrast
to that of the Catholic Church.
The gray stone walls create an austere atmosphere
that is slightly mitigated by exuberant carving
in the vaulting and in the stone epitaphs that are
fixed to a wall on the north side of the nave.
A gigantic fresco (over 9m high), painted by Johannes
of Rosenau in 1445, covers much of the north wall
of the chancel. The mural shows the Crucifixion
and marks a transition in painting from the coldly
late Gothic to the more human concern of the renaissance.
At the top of the fresco are the Royal Hungarian
insignia with the apostolic cross of Silesia, the
Bohemian vulture and a lion rampant. Below the fresco,
Rosenau depicted Hungary's two first Christian kings:
Stephen, shown with a scepter and Ludovic with an
axe.
To the north of the crossing is polyptych painted
in the style of Dürer, completed in the first quarter
of the 16C.
The cathedral has a choir loft on the south side
with a beautiful fan-vaulted ceiling. There is as
well an immense Baroque organ designed by a German
master in 1671.
Six thousands pipes were installed in 1914 making
it the largest in Romania.
In 1997 was reinstalled the great organ of the church
which first was installed in 1915.
In 1448 the church was enlarged westwards through
the construction of the Ferula (The Galilee). The
aspect of the church was changed on the southern
side after 1474, when the church was decided to
be turned into a hall-church. Thus the southern
side was overraised and in inside a lateral loft
appeared, provided with a ribbed vault. In 1494
the tower of the church was finished and overraised
with two more levels. The last part built was the
little tower with a cork screw staircase raised
in 1520.
On the northern and southern church porches are
two doorway framings. The southern doorway is dated
1457 and the northern one is dated 1520. On the
southern facade of the choir, over a Gothic door,
it is embeded a relief with the theme 'Prayer on
the Mountain of the Olives'.
In inside the most remarcable work is the painting,
dated 1445, called The Crucifixion, realised by
the painter Johannes de Rozenaw. |
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The
Inventory
The movable inventory of the church
is especially valuable. Even if many
of the golden silver religious objects,
works belonging to well-known artists
from Sibiu, as Sebastian Hann, are not
accessible to the public, other remarkable
pieces can be admired in the church.
Inside the choir, there is one of the
most beautiful bronze fonts in the country.
It has the shape of a chalice, decorated
with inscriptions on Gothic capital
and small letters. On its surface, there
are 228 plaquettes in relief. The font
is the work of the artist Leonhardus,
from 1438. Tradition pleads for its
being moulded from the bronze of the
Turkish cannons captured by the inhabitants
of Sibiu in 1437.
In 1672, J. West executed the old organ
of the church. This organ is nor working
anymore, the present one being executed
by the firm Wilhelm Sauer from Frankfurt
in 1915.
Some polyptich altars are also preserved
inside the church. One of them is datable
between 1480-1545, with panels inspired
from Albrecht Durer's Tormentions.
Ferula
The church was also a burial place for
many personalities of Sibiu. In 1853
the gravestones covering their graves
were taken down from the nave of the
church and embedded in the walls of
the galilee (ferula), getting out a
unique pile in Romania. There are 67
gravestones.
The oldest gravestones are those of
the mayors Nicolaus Proll and Georg
Hecht, both dead in 1499. The two stones
are in red marble. The galilee also
preserves a wooden statuary group entitled
'Jesus between two angels' (16-th century).
There also exists the previous pulpit
of the church, datable at the end of
the 15-th century, probably executed
by Andreas Lapicida. |
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