Photo credit: (c) Medias Municipal Hall

‘The inclination is something characteristic to the Trumpeters’ Tower. The cause is the loading of the tower with three extra storeys in 1551 and through this its basis subduing to a too big pressure. Once it started to lean, this inclination became bigger and bigger, so that today the tower is part of the most known inclined towers “, Alina Stefan explained.

The history of the defence walls begins at Medias in 1437. The Turkish incursion in Transylvania in 1437 — 1438 leads to an accentuated decay of the Medias fortress, from the economic and the demographical viewpoint. With the ceaseless Turkish peril there, between the 15th and 16th centuries, the villages and smaller fairs which couldn’t ensure their long-length walls’ defence have resorted to the churches’ fortification. The same is the point with Medias, which in a first stage in the middle of the 14th century erected some walls on a restricted area, strengthened with two towers. Subsequently, after the year 1400, the existing walls are over-raised and is projected the construction of another three towers united in-between with belts, foreseen with water ditches and watch roads, erected to protect the area around the Saint Margaret Evangelical Church. The ensemble of these fortifications will be named Castle (a term derived from the Latin castellum, which means a place reinforced, a redoubt, a fortress), its first documentary attestation dating 1450.

The first documentary mention of the Saint Margaret Church dates 1414. The chronicler Georg Soterius writes that the year 1488 is the year when the construction was finished. The church’s dimensions are huge: it is 20m large, 52m long, its central nave is 350m˛ and 12m in height, with 3,000 people capacity.

The church’s tower was erected in 1550, its current height reaching 68.5m and a deviation of 2.28m from the vertical, inscribing among the 12 first constructions of this kind worldwide. In the castle’s structure are also included the defence towers: The Bells’ Tower, the Taylors’ Tower, the Ropemakers’ Tower and Mary’s Tower.

On the occasion of its over-elevation, the tower’s crest was framed by four corner towers which symbolize the right of the city to pronounce on the capital punishment (jus gladii). The city’s trumpeter used to live in one of the small towers and inform the citizens through his trumpet sounds the enemies’ nearing, the fires’ outburst and the entrance into the city of the prince or of other high dignitaries. The trumpeter is officially mentioned in documents ever since 1508. This how it came to be called the Trumpeters Tower.

The cause of its leaning was the fact that the tower has been over loaded with three extra storeys in 1551 and, by doing this, its basis was subdued to a too much pressure. Once it began to lean, this inclination got more and more accentuated, so that today it is part of the most famous inclined towers. Its leaning has determined the people in charge to take steps to strengthen it. So, an external belt was walled up, including the northern and western sides of the tower, and two buttresses in the northwest and northeast corners and a reinforcement of the foundation inside the tower. Sharpened to its peak like a blade lance, over the clocks measuring for ages the terrestrial time of the people of Medias, the roof’s helmet was framed with other four small towers attesting the fact that the city used to have a court and the city’s right to pronounce the capital punishment.

In Medias, if one was found guilty one could receive a capital punishment through a court sentence. The city used this right among other things to burn at the stake some ‘witches” in the 17th century, the last event attested in this respect being from 1752. During the time, various repairing works were necessary at the Trumpeters Tower. An extreme, yet necessary solution, has been adopted in 1927-1930, when in order to avoid the sharpening leaning of the Trumpeters Tower to the northeast, the tower was embraced both on its interior and on its exterior in an armed concrete belt up to the level of the 3 storeys at rd 14m high. On this occasion, the wooden statue of Turre Pitz (Petrica of the tower) was dethroned, which for three centuries had watched the city and could be admired today at the municipal museum and replaced with another oak wood statue, Roland. The legend says that during the building of the tower a worker fell from the roof. In his memory the statue of Turre Pitz was put in place. Roland was considered the city’s protector. In 1984, Roland was replaced with a copy, manufactured by Kurtfritz Handel.

Photo credit: (c) VIOREL LAZARESCU/AGERPRES ARCHIVE

In the Castel’s composition are also included the defence towers: The Bells’ Tower, the Taylors’ Tower, the Ropemakers’ Tower and Mary’s Tower.

The city’s fortress was built between 1490-1534, after a decree by Matei Corvin Hungarian King in 1486, which compelled the two Saxon Seats of Seica and Medias, respectively, to erect the stone fortifications. They count together for 2,360m total length of the walls, 0.8m in-depth and cca 7m height. There were three main access gates to the fortress strengthened with defence towers: The Steingasser Gate, to the north, the Zeckesch Gate, to the east, and the Forkesch Gate, to the south. The citadel was over-fortified in the next period, its peak being reached in the 18th century when it numbered 19 towers and bastions, the three main gates having been added another four secondary gates to.

Recently, this July, The City Hall of Medias announced that fortress’s towers and walls will be rehabilitated by 26 million lei from the European Union through the 2007-2013 Operational programme, the sustainable Development and tourism promotion.

With this investment 7,736 sqm of fortification walls and three tourist spots will be rehabilitated: the Cutlery Bastion, the Masons’ Tower and the Wheelers’ Tower.

“I wish to stress that the fortress’s towers and walls rehabilitation project is a complex one aiming to carry out works of area’s planning, respectively passers-by alleys, and bicycles’ tracks too, banks, informational poles, as well as parking lots. I find it our duty to rehabilitate, to preserve and to promote Medias tourist spots. We’ve got one single step for this goal come true and I trust that after it is completed, the tourist potential of Medias will soar. At the same time I want to thank the citizens who have understood the significance of this project for Medias and started to disband the garages in the area”, mayor Teodor Neamtu said.

The most leaned tower of Europe is the well-known Pisa Tower, Italy. The tower’s erection began in 1173 and went on (with two big interruptions) during two hundred years, with the goal to observe as much as closely the original project, whose architect is unknown. Besides its beauty, the tower is famous
For its leaning which is increasing with the time, due to the bad quality of the soil. It is 55.86m high on its inclined side, and 56.70m on the other side. Its weight is estimated to 14,500 tonnes. The tower’s leaning as against its vertical axis is 5.5 degrees, which means its body moves its weight centre at the basis level by 4.5m.

Photo credit: (c) Medias Municipal Hall

Because of its importance to the tourism industry of the city of Pisa, the Italian government implicated seriously in the last consolidation works that started in 1990, due to which they hope the life of the historical monument be prolonged by 300 years. The Tower of Pisa stabilization works lasted for 20 years, since 1990 until 2010. AGERPRES