Felmér

Felmér (Felmer, Felmern, Fälmern) is a village in Romania, in the north-western part of Brassó County. It belongs administratively to the municipality of Sáros. The village has no running water, sewerage, gas, or public transport. The Saxon fortress church is in a dilapidated state, built on a slope in the remote hills east of Fogaras Mountains, the three-nave basilica has preserved the choir with its semicircular apse and the central nave. Location: https://tinyurl.com/2vm9xmd5

The name of the settlement is said to have derived from the Slavic personal name Velimir. According to Kniezsa István, the word beginning F indicates that it was first introduced into the German (Saxon) language, and from there it was adopted by Hungarian (and later Romanian). In contrast, in the opinion of Kálmán Béla, it was first introduced into the Hungarian language, and the word beginning Vel was changed to Fel as a result of folk etymology, based on the name pair Almér-Felmér. Legend has it that this village got its name from a priest (Felmeraien) who came to settle in Transylvania, along with 15 colonist families, around 1200.

The form Welmer first appeared in 1206. In 1455 and 1486 it was Felmer, in 1494 Felmar, in 1534 Fölmer, and from the 16th century onwards the most common variant was Felmer. In 1839 the forms Fellmer, Felmeria, Fellmern, Felmerndorf, and Felmera were recorded. After the Romanian takeover, Felmer became the official name.

Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Roman artifacts have been found on the surrounding hills, but not in the village area, which is thought to have been a wet, marshy place in the past, so no ancient settlements were established there. The Saxons arrived in the 12th century: between 1150 and 1190, settlers from the Rhine-Main region and Flanders were scattered over the area of the present village, and around 1190 they decided to found a village. Like many other nearby villages, the first mention of Felmér dates back to 1206, in a grant from King András II of Hungary, in the form of Villa Welmer.

From the 14th century, it was a Saxon village in the Kőhalomszék region. In 1488, 34 holders, a schoolmaster, and two poor men were recorded but in 1532 only 21 families lived there. At that time there was also a mill in the village. Its inhabitants were mainly engaged in agriculture, but there were also a few craftsmen. There were frequent border disputes with the neighboring Romanian-inhabited Sona and the Hungarian-inhabited Kóbor. The Saxons were decimated by Turkish raids (in 1532 there were only 21 households), so the bishop of the time decided to increase the population by bringing in Moldavian settlers.

The Romanians initially settled on the outskirts of the village, as the Saxons lived in the center; later, because of flooding, the Saxons sold their central houses to the Romanians and built new houses on the surrounding hills. In 1534, Gritti had Bishop Czibak Imre, Voivode of Transylvania, assassinated here in connection with disputes between the Habsburgs and the Ottoman Empire.

In 1658, most of the village was destroyed by the Turks. In the 18th century, Benkő József reported that his Lutheran church had 182 men and 105 women, and its inhabitants grew many peas. In 1848, cholera raged: 112 Saxon and 58 Romanian and Gypsy deaths were reported.

According to censuses, Romanians were in the majority by the end of the 19th century: in 1880, 534 of the 1023 inhabitants were Romanians and 413 German-speaking; 595 were Orthodox and 424 Evangelical. By the end of the 20th century, most of the Saxon population had left the village: in 1998, 15 Germans lived in the village, 65 in the surroundings of Fogaras, and 395 Saxons of Felmér origin in Austria and Germany (475 in total, which roughly corresponds to the former Saxon population of Felmér). In 2011, 347 of the 442 inhabitants were Romanian, 73 were Roma, and 3 were German.

The fortified church

The fortress church of Felmér was built around 1250 in Romanesque style; at the end of the 15th century, it was fortified and rebuilt with Gothic elements, topped with a protective rampart and a defensive wall with five towers, approximately square in plan. The ruined Evangelical fortress church was originally built in Romanesque style, fortified at the end of the 15th century, and rebuilt in Gothic style.

Around 1500 the church was upgraded for defense purposes, the aisles were demolished and a fortified storey was added to the choir and nave. The church was surrounded by a ring wall, which originally had three defense towers, two of which have survived. The defense storey was demolished again around 1800 and the nave vaulted with Bohemian caps resting on strong wall templates. The school, now destroyed, was built on the south side of the ring wall.

Two towers can still be seen on the northern part of the wall, while the southern part of the wall and the towers have been demolished, leaving only the remains of the school. The church is in a poor state of repair, with cracks running along the spire, plaster missing in many places and little of its furnishings remaining.

In 1795 the church was given a tower on the west side, and the circular wall was moved to the west. In 1909, the new Saxon school was built on the site of the southern part of the enclosure wall, and the last maintenance work was carried out on the church. The Romanian Orthodox church was built in 1834, before which a wooden church was used, the ruins of which can still be seen. Its roof was rebuilt after a storm in 1876. The Romanian school was opened in 1850, next to the church.

Recent research

Let us quote Radu Bârlă who knows almost everything about the history of this building: “Almost nothing that was alleged about the church of Felmer, because up until a few years ago it had not been researched, remains standing.” The oldest part of the current construction is from the 14th century, erected directly in the Gothic style. If there was a 13th-century church on this site, nothing other than a part of the foundations are preserved. Future archaeological research will clarify the situation better.

The church preserves fragments of 15th – 17th-century paintings and a Gothic wooden tabernacle (currently the unique of its kind documented for Transylvania and medieval and early modern Hungary). All found in the last few years. The bell tower was most likely an oversized enclosure tower. The church expanded at the end of the 18th – beginning of the 19th century was annexed to it. We have never been able to identify the basis of the assumption that it was built in 1795. A non-existent inscription has been invoked.

There must be some confusion, someone messed up some data. The fortification also had a gate tower on the southern side, later transformed into a school and an octagonal tower. Both were demolished in the early years of the 20th century to make way for a new school, today in ruins. The church is affected by historical deposits (filled with rubble and soil) inside (+0.5 m) and outside (+1.5 m) that cause water accumulation and have weakened the resistance structure.

Happily, the interior still retains a real 18th-century painted furniture trove (although later painted over the painting) much larger than any other church in the area, a trove waiting to be restored. The village has always been poor, despite a large population. From almost 1400 inhabitants at the level of 1930, there are currently less than 400. Both the majority of the Saxons and a good part of the Romanians, left Felmér in the 1950s – 1960s for Fogaras, where there were jobs. In the 1970s, too. Yet, 100 Saxons (out of more than 500) still lived in the village. The rest had already sold their houses to other villagers.

For this reason, the church has also come into an advanced state of degradation, because already in 1990 it was in a bad state. Those who left only 15 km away no longer cared about what was happening in the village, and those who stayed no longer had the means to take care of it. Obviously, after 1990, when almost all the Saxons from Felmér left for Germany, the situation got worse.

The original canvas of the altar panel, painted by Carl Dörschlag, was cut up and stolen after 2000 by the son of the curator at the time. He received an order from a member of the community who went to Germany and wanted a “souvenir”. The current one is a reproduction (print) of the altar of the evangelical church in Kissink / Cinc (or/ Kleinschenk). At that time, a baroque epitaph that was above the priest’s side was stolen and destroyed. In 2011, the caretakers of the church (Romanians this time) stole 10 historic pews from the church and demolished a school wall to reuse the brick and wood to build a summer kitchen. The police, the prosecutor, and the court have ruled that the thieves are innocent.”

Sources: Tudor Duică, https://kirchenburgen.org/ro/location/felmern-felmer/, and

http://salutfagaras.ro/felmer-satul-cu-3-sasi/, and the Hungarian Wikipedia

Pictures of Felmér:

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