Slimnic Fortress in Sibiu County – Stories and Legends

A holiday in Sibiu County can never be boring. Besides the historic centre of the city, there are countless activities and attractions, including: the Astra Museum, Sub Arini Park, Biertan Fortress, the Fairies’ Castle, Povestea Calendarului and more.

See also: Top 10 attractions in Sibiu County and around

Slimnic Fortress, known as Stolzenburg, is in the locality of Slimnic, on the road between Sibiu and Mediaș, on the plateau of a hill. It was built in the 14th century, and is one of the refuge fortresses, built to defend against attacks coming from the north.

The fortified citadel consists of towers, a chapel, a bastion, a gate tower and annexes. The first structure was raised at the beginning of the 13th century and was later replaced with a stronger brick fortification a century later. Its role was to give shelter against Turkish attacks.

The first fortification of the fortress also had a Gothic chapel, the oldest part of the building. Above the chapel is the bell tower, on three levels.

The fortress was attacked several times, three times by the Turks in the 15th century, which is why the initial work on the Gothic church was halted. A decade later, the locals wanted to resume renovation work on the church, but gave up because of a plague epidemic. By then the villagers had managed to raise walls around it, and today the outer ones survive intact.

The fortress withstood the Turkish siege and even the plague epidemic, but in 1706 it was destroyed by fire. Unfortunately its strategic defensive role could no longer be fulfilled, so it was abandoned and left in ruins in the 18th century. A century later the fortress was torn down, and bricks were taken and used to build one of the walls of the village cemetery.

In 1950, on the initiative of the Historic Monuments Directorate, some restoration and consolidation work was carried out.

Like Biertan Fortress, Slimnic Fortress had a divorce room, where couples from the village were locked in together if they wanted to separate. Most of them decided to stay together.

The highest point of the fortress, the bell tower, will give you the chance to enjoy a superb panorama of the village.

A legend about the fortress refers to the time of the siege, when the men defending the fortress received food through a tunnel linking the fortress to a chapel in the village cemetery. Several times a week the villagers pretended to take part in a funeral procession, and put food in the coffin. That way those in the fortress came at night through the tunnel to the chapel and took the food. They were exposed by a local woman who fell in love with a soldier and told him the secret of the tunnel.