Dârjiu Fortified Church: the «Bacon Fortress», UNESCO

The fortified church in the village of Dârjiu (Hungarian Székelyderzs) in Harghita County is one of the few fortress churches of Transylvania built not by the Saxons but by the Hungarian-speaking Székelys. Today it belongs to the Hungarian Unitarian Church, and since 1999 it has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage site «Villages with Fortified Churches in Transylvania». Locals call it the «Bacon Fortress»: villagers still keep their smoked bacon, sausages and ham in the bastions around the church.

A Székely fortress church

The village first appears in the papal tithe registers of 1334, and a church already stood here at that time. Two early Gothic windows in the south wall of the nave show that the first church was built around the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries. In 1419 the nave walls were covered with frescoes. At the beginning of the 16th century, with the support of the local Petky family, the church was rebuilt in the Late Gothic style: a larger sanctuary, vaults and a western gallery were added, and a defensive storey with arrow slits was created above the vaults. The old curved enclosure was replaced by a rectangular wall with bastions, completed in the early 17th century. Since then the church has survived almost unchanged. A full restoration of the fortified church was carried out in 2012–2018.

Under the covered galleries along the walls the villagers once kept grain in wooden chests, and they hung bacon in the bastion chambers. Every family owns its own wooden peg in the tower; pegs are inherited and never given away. According to an old custom, every Wednesday the bell announces that the gates of the fortress are opening and people come to fetch their supplies for the week.

Why go

Dârjiu brings together two things you rarely see side by side: medieval painting of European importance and a living village tradition. Its fresco cycle of King St Ladislaus is one of the best preserved in Transylvania. At the same time it is not a museum but a church where people pray every Sunday and where the community's supplies hang in the bastions. The village is quiet and far from the big tourist routes, so the fortress can be explored calmly, without crowds.

What to see

• The walls with five bastions and a bell tower — Renaissance fortifications of the early 17th century, whitewashed walls with arrow slits and tiled covered galleries.
• The 1419 frescoes — on the north wall of the nave, upper register, the legend of King St Ladislaus and his fight with the Cumans; below, the story of the Ten Thousand Martyrs and the martyrdom of St Dorothy; on the south wall, scenes from the life of St Paul, the Archangel Michael and fragments of bishop saints.
• A brick with a Székely runic inscription, found in 1929; researchers date it between 1274 and 1431, and the reading of the text is still debated.
• The painted interior — pews of 1790 that were allocated to families, a painted communion table of 1867 and a pulpit with a carved canopy of 1759.
• The bastion larders with family pegs for bacon — the most famous custom of Dârjiu.

Practical information

The church stands on the village's main street; address: Strada Principală, 537075 Dârjiu, Harghita County. It is about 20 km by car from the town of Odorheiu Secuiesc and about 45 km from Sighișoara. From Ukraine the most convenient crossings are Porubne — Siret or Solotvyno — Sighetu Marmației; from the border to Dârjiu it is about 380–400 km on mountain roads. Public transport to the village is rare, so a car is the practical option.

According to the Romanian National Tourist Office, visits are possible Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00, and from 1 November to 31 March the church is closed to visitors; visitor phone +40 744 557 659. These details are undated, so check before you go. The Harghita County tourism portal says you can join the Wednesday «bacon ceremony» if you arrange it a few days in advance. This is an active Unitarian church: during services keep quiet and do not disturb the congregation. Allow about an hour to see the walls, bastions and frescoes.

Nearby

• The fortified church of Saschiz — another UNESCO site among the Saxon villages, about 30 km to the west.
• The historic centre of Sighișoara — a medieval citadel town, also on the UNESCO list.
• GALFFIS chocolate manufactory in Odorheiu Secuiesc.
• The Corund pottery market — Székely ceramics, about 50 km to the north.

Photos: Țetcu Mircea Rareș, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; Vargatamas at English Wikipedia, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons; Andrei kokelburg, CC BY-SA 3.0 ro, Wikimedia Commons.