Fortress church

Earlier constructions included a church surrounded by barns in which a siege of several days could be endured.

Unlike the populations of towns and cities, villagers could not afford to build defences around an entire settlement.

In the Early Middle Ages, especially in recently Christianised regions like Saxony, former bishop's seats were designed as fortress churches.

Particularly in Transylvania, a historically German settlement area, there are well over a hundred fortress churches of which seven have been designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites (Birthälm/Biertan in 1993, Kelling/Calnic, Wurmloch/Valea Viilor, Dersch/Darjiu, Deutsch-Weißkirch/Viscri, Keisd/Saschiz and Tartlau/Prejmer in 1999).

Fortress churches have not survived in North Germany, most likely due to the re-use of their stone for other building purposes during period of scarcity of such materials.