Monastery Church, Sighișoara

The Monastery Church, also known as the Church of the Dominican Monastery (Romanian: Biserica Mănăstirii Dominicane, German: Dominikanerkapelle), is a Gothic church formerly part of a medieval Dominican monastery in Sighişoara, Romania. The monastery was erected in 1289, and demolished in 1888.[1] The monastery was one of a network planned by Paulus Hungarus (Paul the Hungarian) throughout the Kingdom of Hungary to act as a bulwark against heresy.[2] Hungarian nobleman Leonard Barlabássy gave the church an endowment.[3]

Monastery Church

Architecture

Between the inside and outside of the church there are some stylistic differences. If in the interior the Baroque style is prevailing, on the exterior the simple facades retain most of the elements of late Gothic architecture. The west facade is the most impressive, dominated by a triangular pediment equipped with three very tall gothic windows. After the demolition of medieval buildings located in the space between the church and the Clock Tower, on the southern side were built three vertical columns, which end at the top with three arches supporting masonry church.

Inside the church architectural elements and artistic furniture typical of the early Baroque era are prevailing. Elements such as pillars and arches, the altar, pews, canopy, painted organ and balconies and Transylvanian rugs that adorn the church.

The most important piece of furniture is a baptismal font made in bronze. This font is the oldest and most valuable piese of furniture art in the church. A Latin inscription is visible on the cup showing the scope of baptism: „Baptism banish the forces of evil and the devil” and specifying the name of the author of the artwork:”This work was made by the hands of Jacob, the one that makes bells, in the Year of Our Lord 1440”.

The font was made in a local workshop in Sighisoara; it is 108.5 cm high and has 60.3 cm of diameter. The cup bell contains the inscription mentioned and it’s decorated with biblical scenes and lilies.

A similar font, dating from the same period, is in the Sibiu Lutheran Cathedral, but it doesn’t have the same „grace” as the one in Sighisoara.

References
  1. Mallows 2012, p. 189.
  2. Spinei 2012, p. 420.
  3. Crăciun 2011, p. 64.

Bibliography
  • Crăciun, Maria (2011). "Mendicant Piety and the Saxon Community of Transylvania, c. 1450-1550". In Crăciun, Maria; Fulton, Elaine (eds.). Communities of Devotion: Religious Orders and Society in East Central Europe, 1450 - 1800. Ashgate. pp. 29–71. ISBN 978-0754663126.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Mallows, Lucinda (2012). Transylvania. Bradt Travel Guides. ISBN 978-1841624198.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Spinei, Victor (2012). "The Cuman Bishopric—Genesis and Evolution". In Curta, Florin (ed.). The Other Europe in the Middle Ages: Avars, Bulgars, Khazars and Cumans ( (Volume 2 ed.). BRILL. pp. 413–456. ISBN 978-9004163898.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

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