Szerdahely and Kelnek

Szerdahely

Kelnek

SZERDAHELY (Miercurea, Rumania today) originally was a Székely village. In the 12th century, Hungarian king Géza II (1141-1162) of the House of Árpád, settled the Saxons from Germany to refill the country in Transylvania whose population was decimated by wars, epidemics, etc. The Saxons, settled here, came from the area of the rivers Rhine and Mosel, where, during those years, large floods devastated life and caused a huge famine.
On the main square of Szerdahely stands the church which was built in the 13th century and later modified, in gothic style, in the 14th century. In the 15th century, after the notorious Tartar and first Turkish attacks, the 3-aisle church was fortified. Inside the fort, they built warehouses to store foodstuffs for prolonged sieges. In the 18th century, the church underwent a thorough renovation, when it received very nice baroque painted pews, made of carved-wood.
KELNEK, similarly to Szerdahely, Kelnekonce was a Székely village. The Székelys built the first church here, in the 12th century. Following the settlement policy by Hungarian king Géza II, Saxons moved here, too. They built a residence tower next to the church and, in the 15-16th century, they built enormous walls around the church, which were so strong that they could resist to the several sieges, such as the Tartar raid in 1658.