SIEBENBURGEN: una herencia sajona
"¡A la ciudadela! ¡A la ciudadela! ¡Los turcos atacan!"
Montando a pelo, la guardia sajona atravesó rápidamente el pueblo, gritando y blandiendo la temida espada ensangrentada.
"A la ciudadela. . . la ciudadela. . . ".
Alarmados, los hombres del pueblo engancharon frenéticamente sus caballos a los carros y las mujeres agarraron a los niños; Los vecinos montados pasaron apresuradamente gritando: "¡Los turcos atacan! ¡Los otomanos!". Los invasores habían llegado a menudo, pero las fortalezas construidas por los sajones y sus defensores los hicieron retroceder.
The Saxons came from the Rhine and Moselle regions of Northern Europe--most from the German state of Saxony. They arrived in Transylvania--"land between the forests" in the mid-1100s, invited by the ruler of this Romanian land. They stayed in this hilly region for 850 years and named their lands Siebenburgen after the seven fortress cities they built to protect themselves and their towns. Over the centuries, the Saxons and their descendants not only farmed and protected the fertile lands between the forested Carpathian Mountains, but formed guilds and became wealthy traders. Respected for their skills and talents, the Saxons gained a degree of freedom previously unheard of in medieval Europe. In their adopted homeland, any Saxon could move up in society based on merit.
Today, nearly two hundred of their citadels stand in Romania as a tribute to their skills and courage. Their fortifications usually encircled churches, villages, peasant refuges, or military outposts. In southern Transylvania, their fortresses dot the countryside, mere minutes or, at most, a few hours apart.
Braşov
The largest city in southern Transylvania, , is a good place to begin a Saxon Heritage our.
Brasov, or Kronstadt in German, was protected by its thick ramparts and, on three sides, by mountains.
Because of its impregnable nature, it became a major centre for east-west trade, and outsiders paid tolls to enter the city gates.
Many a merchant donated valuable 17th- and 18th-century Oriental rugs to the city's largest Lutheran place of worship:
Black Church, grateful for safe trading expeditions to the East, and for peaceful passages through the nearby Carpathian Mountains
where lynx, bears, wolves, and wild boar still roam.
Today, some of these same rugs hang in the three-naved Black Church.
Its name is attributed to a fire set long ago by disgruntled invaders unable to breach the city's walls.
Ever since, the church and its red-tiled roof have been ash-stained.
The 16th century Weaver's Bastion - a corner fort on Brasov's walls - displays a scale model of Brasov,
a great help for understanding the unique character of a fortified medieval city.
An old Romanian town huddles beneath Brasov's protecting walls.
In its museum compound, located close by St. Nicholas church, visitors can sit at worn school desks to learn about the embattled area's history.
About 18 miles southwest of Brasov, Bran Castle towers from a bluff in the forested Carpathians. Romania's top tourist attraction, this fairytale castle was begun in 1378 by Saxon merchants as a toll station to guard Bran Pass. Later, it served as a military stronghold to support nearby villages. The castle, fictionalized as Dracula's Castle, became a summer retreat for Romania's Queen Marie in the 1920s. Now visitors can see its many rooms and its secret chimney stairway. Within walking distance of the castle, the Village Museum features old Romanian log houses with colorful peasant furnishings, as well as farm buildings with rustic tools.
Râșnov
The extensive ruins of Rasnov Fortress are a short drive away.
This peasant hill-top fortress suffered fifteen Turkish assaults.
It's easy to imagine the guard racing his horse through the village, shouting and brandishing
the traditional bloody sword, and the villagers fleeing up to the citadel.
Hărman
A short drive away, the walled church citadel of Harman (Honigberg) stands over its surrounding moat.
Once, Harman's storerooms held food, water and other supplies for the nearby villagers.
The four small towers on the main church tower indicate that this was the seat of the local Saxon judge.
En el santuario Harman, bancos sin respaldo llenan la sección media, sin respaldo para las mujeres y sus faldas acampanadas.
Y, contra las paredes, asientos con respaldo alto colocaban a hombres y niños mayores cerca de las puertas en caso de un ataque repentino.
I took the Saxon heritage tour with the hope that I might find the villages where my maternal grandparents had once lived.
We knew the villages' Germanic names--Katzendorf and Bogeschdorf--names unmentioned on Romanian maps.
Could we find the villages and, if so, did anything of Saxon days remain?
Nuestra primera respuesta llegó en la puerta de la fortaleza Harman. La mesa del cuidador contenía mapas. que muestra iglesias sajonas y fortalezas de pueblos con nombres en alemán, rumano y húngaro.
¡Maravilla de maravillas, Katzendorf no estaba muy lejos!
Mi abuelo creció allí y emigró a Estados Unidos en 1903, hace casi cien años. Parecía imposible que pudiera encontrar pruebas de su vida allí.
We drove onward. Suddenly, at the edge of the dusty road, a sign spelled out CATA, the Romanian name for KATZENDORF! A hopeful sight. Next, we glimpsed an amazing sight: three storks nesting on the church tower. We stopped to take pictures. Another sight appeared: a horse pulling an overflowing hay wagon replete with lively gypsies, who struck hilarious poses for the camera.
My grandfather must have seen similar scenes, I thought. Storks have long dwelt on the towers and chimney-tops of Central Europe, and gypsies arrived from India in the 14th century. In the village, my English- and Romanian-speaking guide inquired about the local Saxons and, before long, we found the centuries-old Lutheran church. Deteriorating walls stood near the church, but two white courtyard walls still bore bright scenes of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and other Biblical scenes. Like most villages, each house had a vegetable garden, and their apple and plum trees held plump fruit. Here, an old grapevine flourished against the school wall.
Llamamos a la puerta del conserje de la iglesia.
Respondió una dulce mujer de cabello blanco.
En mi oxidado alemán, le dije que mi abuelo había vivido aquí.
Di su nombre. "George Mathiae".
Emocionada, señaló al otro lado del camino. "Casa Mathiae".
¡La casa de su familia allí mismo! Quedamos asombrados.
Nos pidió que la llamáramos Tante (tía) ya que todos en el pueblo lo hacían,
y nos invitó a conocer a su marido de 88 años, que yacía enfermo en cama.
Herr Mueller recordó a la familia Mathiae y mencionó los nombres de sus descendientes.
La sobrina de mi abuelo, la última Mathiae del pueblo, había muerto hacía apenas un mes.
Before long, Tante Mueller led us through the weed-choked churchyard and unlocked the church door.
The sanctuary was like that of Harman:
backless benches in the middle for women, seats for men around the outer edges for fighting off invaders.
But in this sanctuary I noticed more.
In front and to the left side of the altarpiece stood a long bench for boys; opposite it, a long bench for girls.
The pastor in the raised side pulpit would have had a perfect view of the boys' bench, where my lively grandfather would have sat.
Nearby stood the baptismal font, where he had been baptized.
Surprising tears burst to my eyes. I could hardly speak. Tante Mueller took my hands.
At length, she told us there had been a thousand church members when she was a girl;
now only five Saxons lived in the village, and three would soon leave soon for Canada.
Many had emigrated to Germany and Canada when Communism was overthrown.
Only this white-haired woman and her sick husband would remain.
We talked and prayed together, and when it was time to leave, exchanged sisterly kisses.
"Auf wiedersehen”, dijo con tristeza.
"Auf wiedersehen en Himmel", respondí. ¡Nos volveremos a ver en el Cielo!
Ella se animó, luego se paró en la puerta de su casa, saludando como una niña mientras nos subíamos a nuestro auto y nos alejábamos.
We drove through the green countryside into the heart of Siebenburgen -
Sighisoara (Schassburg) -- una ciudad fortificada del siglo XIII.
Un tesoro europeo, Sighisoara es uno de los UNESCO World Heritage Sites
Situada en el río Tarnava Mares, la ciudad fue construida por los sajones entre los siglos XII y XVII.
Once torres custodian las murallas de Sighisoara, entre ellas la Torre de los Sastres y la Torre de los Zapateros.
From the top of Clock Tower, visitors can look down on the red-tiled roofs of the Old Town
and see intact 16th century Saxon houses lining the narrow cobblestone streets.
Today, merchants and craftsmen still go about their business, as they did centuries ago.
Sighisoara's charming hotels, restaurants, and historic attractions
make it one of the few citadels in the world where life still goes on within its walls.
Otros lugares altos incluyen una escalera de madera cerrada, la Escalera de los Eruditos, que sube 175 escalones hasta la Iglesia en la colina.
La iglesia es conocida por sus frescos de 500 años de antigüedad, sus hermosos bancos renacentistas y su cripta románica.
Another intriguing church in the historic centre is the Former Leper Hospital's Church, a Gothic chapel with an outside pulpit for lepers.
Another: the Monastery Church, built and rebuilt for 800 years.
It is known for its Transylvanian Renaissance carved altarpiece, baroque painted pulpit, Oriental carpets, and 17th century organ.
Begun by Dominican friars, it became Lutheran during the Reformation.
En el siglo XV, el infame Vlad el Empalador nació en una de las casas más señoriales de Sighisoara;
cerca de su casa se encuentra el Museo Sala de la Tortura. Sin embargo, las iglesias contradicen su imagen tortuosa, al igual que el lema de la ciudad: "El nombre de Dios es la torre más fuerte".
Biertán
In the nearby countryside, another UNESCO World Heritage town, 13th-century Biertan, stands high on a hill, enclosed by walls more than 35 feet high.
The most famous of the fortified churches, Biertan was the seat of the Lutheran bishops from 1572 to 1867;
their fine gravestones can be seen inside the Bishops' Tower.
A local guide said that a room in the church was kept for couples who wished to divorce;
they were locked up together for two weeks so that they might discover the folly of their ways.
Seguimos conduciendo hacia Bagaciu (Bogeschdorf), el pueblo de mi abuela hasta los 17 años.
Dusty roads led through green hillsides, then through an indolent flock of geese and, finally, to her walled-in church.
We quickly found the caretaker, who unlocked the door for us.
Its sanctuary was similar to the one in my grandfather's church,
but featured a fine four-panel altarpiece and, in case of raids, a hidden room for community treasures.
The village's oldest Saxon, Herr Holman, was summoned.
He was 92, spry and lucid, but knew nothing of Katharina Bogeschdorfer, nor any in her family. Moreover, the church records had been taken away for translation.
But in the sanctuary, I could imagine the young Katharina sitting on the girls' bench between the pulpit and the altarpiece, fanning herself on a warm summer Sunday.
Seeing her like that was a triumph in its own way.
Continuamos hacia el oeste hasta Sibiu (Hermanstadt), otra pintoresca ciudad amurallada.
Destruida por los tártaros, los sajones la reconstruyeron con murallas más fuertes para defenderse de futuros ataques.
Su casco antiguo es uno de los más grandes y mejor conservados de Rumanía.
Las fortificaciones medievales incluyen la muralla de defensa, las puertas de la ciudad,
y torres de gremios (Pañeros, Alfareros, Carpinteros), así como las Torres del Molino de Pólvora, la Torre Gruesa y los Bastiones Haller y Soldisch.
La Torre del Consejo se alza sobre el casco antiguo, cuyas casas tienen ventanas adormiladas que miran desde sus áticos;
El Pasaje de las Escaleras conduce bajo arcos fortificados a la ciudad baja, cuyos escalones desgastados por los caminantes, desde emperadores y compositores hasta los turistas de hoy.
El Antiguo Ayuntamiento ahora alberga el Museo de Historia y el Museo Brukenthal, que alguna vez fue el palacio del barón Samuel von Brukenthal.
Gobernador de Transilvania y favorito de la emperatriz María Teresa durante la época del Imperio austrohúngaro.
Sibiu's famous Lies Bridge has its own stories. Nearby, the Saxon merchants' shops were on the first floor of their houses, and they lived upstairs.
It seems that after closing their shops, the merchants congregated on the bridge and swapped stories.
Lies. Time has changed the legend; now it's said that if anyone tells a lie on the bridge, it will collapse.
Sibiu's magnificent old churches, many still in existence, have had their work cut out for them.
St. Mary's Evangelical Church, 14th century, is known for its valuable murals and tombstones.
The baroque Roman-Catholic church, 18th century, for its outstanding fresco of "Virgin Mary and the Holy Infant."
The gothic Ursulines' Church, 15th century, for its baroque elements.
Cross Chapel, 15th century, for valuable gothic carvings. The Orthodox church, begun in the early 20th century, resembles Haghia Sofia in Istanbul.
El Romans'Emperor Hotel de Sibiu ha acogido al emperador José II, así como a los compositores Franz Liszt y Johannes Brahms.
Sibiu sigue siendo una ciudad que atrae a los visitantes gracias a sus antiguas plazas y calles peatonales, y a su notable historia sajona.
Nuestra última parada fue Cluj-Napoca (Klausenburg),
a leisurely three-hour drive from Sibiu, our longest drive of the Saxon tour.
The city of Cluj is now mainly known for its history and university.
The Saxons arrived here in 1183 and, after the Tartar invasion of 1241, replaced the medieval earthen walls with stone.
The location, however, was not easily defended, and the Saxons stayed only a comparatively short time--not 850 years.
Over the centuries, invaders damaged the fortress towns, churches, and military outposts, but never conquered them entirely.
Hoy en día la mayoría de los sajones han desaparecido, pero en sus ciudadelas todavía se puede imaginar a un jinete galopando hacia el pueblo,
blandiendo la temida espada ensangrentada y gritando,
"¡A la ciudadela! ¡A la ciudadela! ¡El enemigo ataca!"
Más información sobre Transilvania sajones.
