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.
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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