{"id":2133,"date":"2026-11-10T12:48:12","date_gmt":"2026-11-10T11:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peregrinus.hu\/reformatus-erodtemplom-zabola\/"},"modified":"2026-11-10T12:48:14","modified_gmt":"2026-11-10T11:48:14","slug":"reformed-fortified-church-zabala","status":"publish","type":"cpt_services","link":"https:\/\/peregrinus.hu\/en\/reformatus-erodtemplom-zabola\/","title":{"rendered":"Reformed Fortified Church \u2013 Z\u0103bala (Zabola)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Reformed fortified church of Z\u0103bala (Zabola) is one of the largest and best-preserved medieval church monuments of H\u00e1romsz\u00e9k: the Gothic church is enclosed by a single wall of oval plan. Its greatest treasure is the ceiling of roughly one hundred painted coffers covering the nave and chancel, one of the finest ensembles of the Transylvanian floral Renaissance.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The village is first mentioned in 1466, when it hosted a Sz\u00e9kely national assembly; in 1478 the Mikes family obtained the right to hold markets here. No documents record the origins of the church, but its Gothic building surrounded by high walls points to the 14th\u201315th centuries; it stands on the territory of the former village of P\u00e1va, whose coat of arms appears on the chancel. The oval wall was already standing in the early 16th century, and at 1.8 metres thick at the base it ranks among the thick-walled church fortresses of H\u00e1romsz\u00e9k. The Renaissance stone frame of the south door was carved in the first half of the 16th century, while its inscription \u2013 'H. de Toria 1602' \u2013 is a century younger; the bells were cast in 1588 and 1644, the latter commissioned by Tam\u00e1s Basa, captain-general of H\u00e1romsz\u00e9k.<\/p>\n

The wall originally rose to the ridge of the church roof, but its wall-walk and loopholes were removed in 1838, when the wall was lowered and reinforced on the outside with nine buttresses. Tam\u00e1s Basa had the tower rebuilt in 1666, and a new gate tower was built in 1778, only to be destroyed by the earthquake of 1802; the present bell tower with its tin spire was completed in 1847. In the earthquake of 1977 the north wall of the church collapsed, and during its restoration a late Gothic stone-framed sacristy door and a smaller tabernacle niche came to light.<\/p>\n

\"Panorama<\/p>\n

The church took its present form in 1753, when the Gothic vault was replaced by a painted coffered ceiling: the coffers of the chancel were made in 1759 and those of the nave in 1772. The richly drawn, vividly coloured and strongly outlined panels show almost exclusively plant motifs, the only figurative coffer depicting a two-headed bird; similar painted parapets adorn the organ gallery. The five traceried Gothic windows of the south side flood the interior with light. A pointed chancel arch separates the nave from the chancel, and the early 16th-century late Gothic\u2013early Renaissance tabernacle niche and the stone frame of the south door are among the finest early Renaissance monuments of Sz\u00e9kely Land. In the churchyard stands the memorial of Count Kelemen Mikes, a colonel of the Hungarian revolutionary army who fell at the siege of Sibiu in 1849.<\/p>\n

Visiting:<\/strong> Z\u0103bala lies 14 km south of T\u00e2rgu Secuiesc (K\u00e9zdiv\u00e1s\u00e1rhely) on the road towards Covasna; the fortified church stands in the centre of the village, and enquiries about seeing the interior and the coffered ceiling should be made at the pastor's office. The Mikes castle and its arboretum, the Roman Catholic church of 1860 and the Cs\u00e1ng\u00f3 Ethnographic Museum can also be visited in the village.<\/p>\n

Sources: Wikipedia \u2013 Reformed church of Zabola<\/a> \u00b7 Wikipedia \u2013 Zabola (Z\u0103bala)<\/a> \u00b7 Wikipedia \u2013 Fortified churches of Sz\u00e9kely Land<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo: Andrei Stroe \/ Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a> \u00b7 Photo: Andrei Stroe \/ Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Gothic church in Orbaisz\u00e9k ringed by an oval fortress wall, whose roughly one hundred painted coffers form one of the finest ensembles of the Transylvanian floral Renaissance.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":990007,"featured_media":2131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","class_list":["post-2133","cpt_services","type-cpt_services","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cpt_services_group-kovaszna","cpt_services_group-szekelyfold"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nReform\u00e1tus er\u0151dtemplom \u2013 Zabola - Peregrinus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A zabolai reform\u00e1tus er\u0151dtemplom: ov\u00e1lis v\u00e1rfal\u00fa g\u00f3tikus templom H\u00e1romsz\u00e9ken, 1602-es renesz\u00e1nsz kapuval, 1644-es haranggal \u00e9s sz\u00e1z festett kazett\u00e1val.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/peregrinus.hu\/en\/reformed-fortified-church-zabala\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Reform\u00e1tus er\u0151dtemplom \u2013 Zabola - 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