Franciscan Church and Friary – Esztelnek

Franciscan Church and Friary – Esztelnek

Members of the order founded by St Francis in 1209 (the Order of Friars Minor) arrived in Transylvania between 1240 and 1250 via Germany and Hungary, settling first in Beszterce, Nagyszeben and Székelyvásárhely (Marosvásárhely). The first Franciscan friar arrived in Esztelnek in 1677. By then the St George Chapel already stood in the upper part of the village, and a wooden friary was built beside it, blessed on 1 October 1690. The church next to the friary was built between 1710 and 1729 using elements of the old St George Chapel – this probably became the sanctuary of the church. The stone friary was completed in 1750. Of the old friary, only the double sacristy with its built-in wall cupboard, the ornate sacristy cabinet, the walls of the less striking east wing and a carved beam recording the year of the friary's foundation survive in their original form.