Cisnadioara

Cisnădioara, Romania, Romania

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Cisnădioara, a village near Sibiu in Romania, is renowned for its fortified church on St. Michael's Hill, one of Transylvania's oldest Romanesque structures dating back to the late 12th century around 1172. The three-nave basilica dedicated to St. Michael was encircled by a ring wall and towers in the early 13th century for defense against invasions, featuring massive stone cannonballs that grooms traditionally carried uphill to prove their strength. It changed hands over centuries, from Saxon prepositure to Cistercian monks until 1454, then to Sibiu, serving as a refuge during Turkish raids in 1658 and imperial attacks in 1705, and remains largely unchanged as a historic monument today.