"PREJMER / TARTLAU" a Prejmer Travel Page by josephescu

The small town of Prejmer is located 18 km northeast of Braşov, and hosts the most important entrenched church in Transylvania.

The fortress is open to the public from Tuesday to Saturday between 9-15 (tel +40 268 362 052)

Throughout history, the village had appeared under different names in historic documents: Tartilleri (1240). Tartula, Villa Tartulan, Prasmar (1301), Tortalen (1377), Tortelaw (1420) and finally, in an early chronicle of the area dated 1755, Tartlau.
Romanians call it Prejmer.

The Teutonic Order constructed the fortress Tartlau in 1212-1213 as part of their colonization of the Burzenland region. The village had begun development by 1225, and was the eastern-most settlement of the Transylvanian Saxons.

1240 - the village passed to the patronage of the Cistercian Abbey of Kerz

1421 - consolidation works after the first invasion of the Turks in Transylvania

1461 – date inscribed at the base of the church tower

1505 – construction of defence wall finalised

1515 – construction of the bell tower finalised

1611 – the only time the fortress was captured (by Gabriel Bathory)

1788 – actual entrance gate

WW II - Most of Prejmer's German population fled the town

1964 – 1970 – extensive restoration works

since 1992, the Transylvanian Saxon Foundation in Munich took over the patronage of the whole assembly. Considerable restoration works have been carried out. The church and fortress are still maintained by funding from the foundation.

since 1999, the fortress was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.