As the 15^th century ends, the battle for Europe begins! The southeastern European frontier collapses in front of the Ottoman Turks. The heroes (and their legend) that held back the East have died: Vlad Dracula the Impaler, prince of Wallachia in 1476; Holy Stephan the Great, prince of Moldavia in 1504; Skanderberg (Iskender Bey), lord of Albania in 1468. The fall of Constantinople in 1453 and the united European defeat at the great Battle of Mohacs in 1526 opened the way for the Ottoman expansion into Europe. By 1529, Suleiman the Magnificent has conquered southeastern Europe, the Kingdom of Hungary collapsed and the Ottoman troops were battering the walls of Vienna. The Ottoman expansions was finally checked in 1683, when the arrival of King Jan III Sobieski of Poland’s heavy cavalry charge under the walls of besieged Vienna broke the Ottoman army and won a crucial victory.

      

Fortified Saxon Churches of Prejmer

         Transylvania was never invaded by the Turkish armies. The Saxon fortresses and the Szekely armies held the Ottomans armies at bay successfully. With the collapse of the Kingdom of Hungary in 1526, its Transylvanian territories became a political battlefield between European and the Ottoman backed princes until the Principality of Transylvania was born as an autonomous political entity in 1570. In 1600, Michael the Brave, with the support of the Transylvanian Szekely armies, beat the Ottoman and their supporters and realized the first union of the three Romania principalities into one kingdom.

Szekely Cemetery and Church

           

          So, the Carpathians frontier held… but at what price? The aim of this project is to evaluate how major political events physically impact local populations. For that purpose, we will excavate the late medieval cemetery and church from Fenyed-Bradesti. We are interested in the evolution of the population throughout the Middle Ages in the region, the changes in the very local type of church architecture and burial patterns through time, and the variations on the Christian burial ritual during social, political and economic stress. At the same time, we will explore the way local communities "lived" the transition from Catholicism to Protestantism.

Medieval Funerary Home













Fortified Saxon Churches in Transylvania