Monday, July 13, 2009

Black Church in Brasov Sat., July 11

It started to rain as we made our way to the Black Church and photography is not allowed inside -- sooo, few pictures for this spot!

In 1689 the entire city of Brasov was engulfed by fire during a war. The church was damaged during the fire and ever since has been known as "The Black Church". It has several distinguishing factors... it is one of the longest cathedrals with one of the highest ceilings, it houses an organ made by a famous organ maker (sorry cannot remember his name! LOL), the balcony was transformed into a spot for the choir so the pew backs are all capable of shifting to enable people to face the back (that was my favorite part of the church!)

Another interesting fact... people used to be buried beneath the church floor. Finally when someone decided that it probably wasn't healthy to breath they removed all the tombs and placed them elsewhere.

Radu is such a wonderful guide. As we were leaving the church in the pouring rain he stopped to point out this statue on top of the church. It looks to be a small boy. Legend has it that the builder of the church became extremely jealous of his apprentice who was showing great potential -- maybe good enough to surpass his teacher. The builder killed the apprentice and claimed he died accidentally. The other men working on the church knew the true and had this statue of a boy placed on top to remind the builder of his sin every time he looked at the building.

2 comments:

Evan said...

Great pix! I lost my camera on the way to Brasov so had no pictures - now I have some! I can see Radu is as cute as ever...

Terri McCarter said...

He is still a doll!! And such a gentleman! Ahh, to only be 10 years younger LOL

Glad I could help provide some pictures for you of Brasov -- I loved it!