The Building of Bell-Towers Added to Romanian Churches

This paper aims to emphasize a specific aspect in the evolution of the architecture of churches built by Romanian Orthodox or Greek-Catholic communities in the Sibiu region, in the second half of the eighteenth century and during the nineteenth century. More exactly, it is the widespread presence, in the ecclesiastical architecture of that county, and also in other Romanian Transylvanian settings, of the western tower, added to the church, which housed the bells and sometimes even clocks. In most cases, the raising of these towers was entrusted to Saxon masons from Sibiu, whose names have been preserved in inscriptions on the walls of edifices, or by their registering in contracts signed by the Romanians who ordered the execution. The involvement of those worthy craftsmen represented an important factor in maintaining the dialogue and cultural exchanges between the two communities that lived together in the Sibiu County region.