Csíkdelne

Csíkdelne (Delnita) is a Hungarian Székely village in Transylvania, Romania. It is famous for its fortified church. It was mentioned first in 1333. Its fortified church of Saint John was enlarged in the Gothic style around 1450 by Italian masons.

Its ceiling was decorated with 103 painted wooden plates in 1613. The winged altar is from 1675. The frescoes were painted between 1460-1465. Now the ceiling is being soaked through so the wooden plates are kept elsewhere.

Transylvania is full of these fortified Saxon and Székely churches because of the Turk, Tatar raids which lasted as long as 1758. These small fortifications offered proper protection against raiding parties without artillery. Let us not forget that the Székelys were soldiers, they were guarding the Carpathian Mountains. Many Székely guards were settled even on the western fringes of the Kingdom of Hungary but you can find similarly fortified churches in the north, like in the village of Felsővály (Vysné Valice) which is now in Slovakia.

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