BRIEF DESCRIPTION:

Early Transylvanian Gothic Cathedral

Mihail Pandrea
BE1057 1st year

ST. JACOBS
CHAPEL - SEBES

TABLE OF CONTENT
Introduction 2
Chapel&Cathedral3
Bibliography.8

Page 1|8

St . Ja cobs C athedra l &C ha pel (C at edrala Sf. Iacob)

Romanesque & Gothic Cathedral Gothic Chapel

E a r l y T r an s y lv an i a n G o th i c Se b e s , R o m an i a

Whether it is about the genesis of the urban phenomenon in Transylvania

or its further evolution, both of them adhere with some particularities to the
general urban evolution, the European one. The city concept was and still
is one of the major pro gress factors in t he history of humanity. A ll the
activities that accelerated the ec onomical and cultural development of
Europe and the whole world were physically concentrated in the city. In the
same time as Benevolo(2003) states, the city:
[] made the landscape built at one moment in time, last to the next ages
and links one generation s behaviour to the behaviour of the previous
generations []
Sebes was, in the middle ages one of the most important cities in
Transylvania. After being attested in 1245, in the context provoked by the
tartars, almost a hundred years later, the city gains the status of civitas , a
fact which proves that the city had a relatively fast and important
economical, urban and institutional progress. Further archaeological studies
appeared which showed the growing stages of the city. (fig 1)

Fig. 1

Page 2|8

As the city of Sebes began to grow in 117 5, a small chapel (fig. 5) was built
in the further Quartale Rosarum (fig 2). It is known it is t he second earliest
gothic building in Romania, after Baratia Ch apel in Campulung Muscel, which
also serves as the thomb of Laurencius de Longo Campo (d. 1300) (fig 3). At
the beginning of XIX century, the chapel positioned in the middle of the city
cemetery was still stated as the oldest church in Sebes. Friedrich Mller
asserted that this chapel cannot date in the 12th century. During further
studies, Viktor Roth stated tha t the construction began in aprox. 1200.

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

In 1237 , following the evolution of the urbanistic spaces of the city, a

gothic church was built near the chapel (fig 4). The construction process
was developed on a total of five different sta ges that are different in
technologies and styles.(fig. 11)
The basilica has three naves and a semi-circular apse, with the central
nave ceiling covered only with an apparent frame. Communication with the
collaterals
is achieved through five supporting arcades. The arches have
a semi-circular shape and unload the weight on massive rectangular stone
block posts.
In the fourth de cade of XIII century the naves were stretched westward
and at the same time the construction of two square planned massive
towers had begun. At the moment the building was put in use , the central
nave, was not finished, with the superior windows register missing and the
gable roof being provisory supported by a cornice. Even if the window
register existed, it was demolished at the resume of the next stage of
construction. The towers on the west side were stretched up to 7 m, that
being the moment when the construction process stopped because of the
tartar invasion in 1241 -1242, that also took over Sebes -Alba. As the building
stages resumed the west side of the basilica was finished quickly, but the
way of work was changed, giving up to the stretching of the collateral
towers and between them, a massive tower was built in continuity of the
central nave.
Page 3|8

The shape of the twin windows already existing on all of the building sides
make historians to date the church in a period of transition between
Romanesque and Gothic style.

Fig. 4

The Initial Chapel

Fig. 5

The New Church

The last floor is ending with a console-based cornice , in Cistercian

style, that supported the framework of the hip roof. I the second stage of
construction the vaults of the central naves were finished. The vaulted
ceiling , that unloads the weight on the ogival arches, was raised on a new
rhythm , that was not the same with the arches from the inferior register of
the church. The new windows, done in the early gothic style, were put
together in the spaces created by the vaults in the contact with the walls of
the central nave (Fig. 6). The consoles of the columns were also finished in
this stage of construction and their character and details date between 1250
and 1260.

Page 4|8

The semi-circular apse of the old basilica was replaced with a

polygonal one, covered with a vault same as the one used in Cra (Kerz)
(fig 7 ), with radial ribs that unl oad weight to the exterior by four buttresses.
The positioning of the buttresses of the apse, the section of the ogival arches
and the shape of the consoles are also elements that point to some certain
influences coming from the Cra(Kerz) monastery site. The discovery of an
arch keystone, shaped as an 8 leave s flower , same to the ones used in
Cra determined some archaeologists to state that this church was also
built by Cistercian masters. Under the same site influence, another two
symmetrical wings with sacristy role the one on the north side and the
south one, parallel to the first pile bent of the naves. Due to this fact, the
exterior aspect of the basilica was included into the typology of latin
cruciform planned church (Kerz & Bartolomeu) (fig 7 ).

Further archaeological surveys infirmed the hypothesis of an existing

transept, in the sun-rising part of the basilica. By the end of this construction
phase, around 1260, the western portal that remembers, on a minor scale of
the one from the Jak church (western Hungary) (fig.8).

Page 5|8

The portal, complex built, is composed from a succession of nondecorated vaults, that catch a progressive depth from the faade of the wall,
being sustained by three columns.(fig 8)
These columns have slender spindles, column heads (capitels) with
crochet hooks and acanthus leaves as well as antique column bases. The
basilica had an usable surface of ove r 7 00 m2, being an unusually big
church for the XIII century, especially on it s second half. It is estimated that
Sebes had around 300 inhabitants in 1200, while in 2041 , right after the tartar
invasion, the population have grown to 500. By 1300 the number got
significantly bigger, reaching 1200 inhabit ants. In the south-eastern part of
the church, few meters away from the apse, the little chapel still exists, being
composed by a little rectangular nave and an polygonal apse, all sustained
by buttresses.
Its foundations have been been discovered in the infrastructure of the southeastern tower,

According to the opinion of some local historians , the basilica in Sebes was
surrounded with a rectangular w all with defending towers. As already knew
by many, in the middle ages, according to feudal right, the only one that had
the right to build stone fortifications was the king, in his name of conqueror
and owner of people and the lands.
After the tartar invasion in 1241, the king has given this right also to some
nobles or communities. Ferdinand Bauman (1840-1911) was the first historian
that considered the interior of Sebes Church as dating in the second half of
XIII century. After the mongol ian invasion in 1241, in Seb es as in many other
Transylvanian cities were surrounded by stone walls as a firs t stage of
fortification. (Fig.10)
Page 6|8

Gheorghe Anghel (2003) states that this first space could have been
realised by the same stone masters that worked at the Romanesque church
(Kerz). (Fig.9)
According to the description made by Ferdinand Baumann (1889), at XIX
century, the fortification had an almo st rectangular, 88 m long and 52 m
length shape. It had two towers for the gates, transformed in 1623 , the southeastern one into the presbytery while in 17 25, the western tower was turned
into the verger house.
After all the stages and due to the fact that Sebes has not suffered any
harm caused by the revolution in 1848, the church if St. Jacob remains the
second oldest untouched gothic in Transylvania. All other attempts were
modified by the reforms produced in Ger many by Martin Luther, that led to
the religious reform in Transylvania by Honterius. After the AustroHungarians took over, and with them being a catholic empire, a counter reform took place so all the churches were re -decorated whether it was
only on the inside or on the outside too. With the main chapel serving as a
pure gothic, the church that rose near is nothing but another example of
Cistercian well mastered work in Romania and a contribution to the list of
monuments that led historians to call for the term of Transylvanian Gothic .

Page 7|8

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

BAUMAN, F.(1889), Zur Geschichte von Mhlbach 1526-1571, Berlin: PUM

BENEVOLO, L. (2003) , The history of the city in Europe, Iasi: Polirom
HEITEL, R. (1964) , Monumentele medievale din Sebe-Alba, Bucuresti: Meridiane
RUSU, A. (2005), Castelarea carpatic: fortificaii i ceti din Transilvania i
teritoriile nvecinate (sec. XIII-XIV), Cluj Napoca: Editura Mega
SEBESTYEN, G. (1963), Arhitectura Renasterii in Transilvania, Bucuresti: Editura academiei R.P.R
STREITFELD, T. (1935), Das Mhlbacher Dominikanerkloster, Herrmannstadt: Editura stiintifica

Fig. 1 Anghel, C. (2011), Evolutia Urbanistica A Orasului Sebes, Sebes: Biblioteca MVSEI Sabesiensis, p.99
Fig 2. - Anghel, C. (2011), Evolutia Urbanistica A Orasului Sebes, Sebes: Biblioteca MVSEI Sabesiensis, p.152
Fig 3 - http://www.turism-360.ro/imagini/obiective/30363_baratia.jpg
Fig 4 - http://photos.wikimapia.org/p/00/03/09/83/52_big.jpg
Fig 5 - http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4058/4671815022_3fd88277ce.jpg
Fig 6 - Anghel, C. (2011), Evolutia Urbanistica A Orasului Sebes, Sebes: Biblioteca MVSEI Sabesiensis, p. 112
Fig 7 History Museum of Sebes Archives - http://www.cclbsebes.ro/
Fig 8 - History Museum of Sebes Archives - http://www.cclbsebes.ro/
Fig 9 - http://ogradabunicilorsarata.ro/images/obiective/carta.jpg
Fig 10 - History Museum of Sebes Archives - http://www.cclbsebes.ro/
Fig 11 - Anghel, C. (2011), Evolutia Urbanistica A Orasului Sebes, Sebes: Biblioteca MVSEI Sabesiensis, p.270

Page 8|8