Attractions of Chilieni

A few hundred metres from the sign marking the exit from Sfântu Gheorghe towards Brașov, the restored Unitarian church of Chilieni almost offers itself. The first traces of the monument were the foundation walls of a small, semicircular-ended, single-nave building, on which a new Gothic vaulted polygonal shrine was built, probably to repair the damage caused by the earthquake of 1471, and in the first decades of the century, the interior and exterior south and west walls of the nave were covered with murals on various themes. With the spread of the Reformation in the 16th century, the population of the village converted first to the Reformed and then to the Unitarian faith, and the church was shared for many years by the two religions.

The church’s murals, restored by 2000, were whitewashed during the Reformation and only emerged from under the lime layer in the last decades of the 19th century. In 1885, József Huszka, an art teacher from Sfântu Gheorghe, was informed about this and soon brought the extremely valuable mural ensemble to light, drew it, and then, in the spirit of the agreement with the church, had the murals painted back. The final restoration was completed in 2017, and the murals in the nave depict the following in two registers: the Passion of Christ in several scenes, a rich composition of the Last Judgement, and the legend and history of St Lazarus, unique in Europe. And all this just a few hundred metres from the exit of Sfântu Gheorghe towards Brașov...

Samu Csinta