Villages with fortified churches in Transylvania Villages with fortified churches in Transylvania The south-eastern Transylvania region in Romania currently has one of the highest numbers of existing fortified churches from the 13th to 16th centuries. It has more than 150 well preserved fortified churches of a great variety of architectural styles (out of an original 300 fortified churches). Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Villages with Fortified Churches in Transylvania are seven villages (six Saxon and one Székely) founded by the Transylvanian Saxons. They are dominated by fortified churches and characterized by a specific settlement pattern that has been preserved since the late Middle Ages.
Celts in Transylvania found in Mediaș, Moreşti, (Mureş County) and Ciumeşti. Expansion of Celtic groups in the area may be related to their invasion of the Balkans around 335 BC, when a massive colonization of the Tisa plain and the Transylvanian Plateau occurred following the death of Lysimachus. However, the eastward movement of the Celts into Transylvania used a different route from the one taken by the hordes that attacked the Balkans. Celts did not occupy all intra-Carpathian areas of Transylvania, stopping short of the Maramureş Depression for instance, where excavations have uncovered Dacian fortifications from the 4th and 3rd centuries BC. As