Newsletter XV

Dear Lords and Ladies, friends and supporters,

it’s time to inform you about the progress and the plans of our churchfortress project. We opened up the season of 2018 on Easter week and welcomed spring to our castle. As always, we had a few intense but splendid days in the beautiful village of the hundred hills and thousand mysteries.

Of Buffaloes and Mangalitza pigs

First of all, we visited the three buffalos and … they are amazing animals! Their servant Stelică, the beekeeper, is a sensitive farmer and already had tied a good connection to each of them. We were invited to taste the buffalo milk as well as cream (smântână) and will probably never forget this experience again. You should definitely come and have a try! The buffaloes will join the village herd to the community pasture for the first time in the upcoming week. We are very excited about how those new villagers will be accepted in Movile. Thank you again to the first donators who made the churchfortress buffalo project come true. Each strong and healthy buffalo costs more than 600 € and we are very motivated to help also other families of the village in the next years and support them to get one too.

And that’s not all! We visited a farmer in the nearby village of Malancrav who breeds the formerly traditional pig breed of Mangalitzas. With your financial support we could bring this traditional livestock back to Movile in 2018 as we already found three families around our castle who are interested in raising these hairy piglets. A piglet will cost about 70 €, depending on the weight. And because pigs are very social animals, we won’t want to give them away singly, so we hope to be able to welcome at least six happy Mangalitzas in Movile this year.

Restauration works

Beside the animal projects we surely hat to inspect our brand new old “Specki”, the former (and maybe future?) Speckturm of our churchfortress. Our friend was restored carefully last autumn and the results are amazing! We are very happy that we could contribute to this first step towards the preservation of the whole ensemble.

The next mission of our Easter trip to Transylvania was to organise the reparation works at our future headquarters, the old teacher’s house of Movile. We met with a carpenter from Sibiu who wants to help us to finish the last part of the roof in June 2018, and had a look at this most difficult part of the traditional restoration. We estimate a work time of three weeks and costs more than 2.000 € to get the roof done this year and start the interior works. Second, we talked to a professional wood window manufacturer from Sighisoara and took measure on site. The work and can be finished in summer and will cost about 1.000 € for all four front windows.

Support

Whew! With each further project we have more and more costs for our association. That is why we kindly ask you at this point to support us financially. Every amount we receive is more than helpful to keep the churchfortress project alive and move forward step by step.

Publications and presentations

Another important success was the completion of the AFCP Free Space Report for future restoration works at the fortified churches in Daia / Denndorf and Movile / Hundertbücheln. Stay tuned, we will publish it soon!

Moreover, we were again invited to the meeting of scientific Saxons at Castle of Gundelsheim to present our churchfortress project. It was a great success and we made very interesting contacts and received a lot of mental support. Thank you for your invitation, we appreciate the chance to work together!

Upcoming activities

Finally, we want to present you the programme for this year. Every member or follower of churchfortress project is invited to lend us a hand with the following projects:

• We are invited to present our churchfortress project at the meeting of German restorers in Berlin at 5^th of May.
• From May 9^th to 18^th, we want to build a little bridge to the Teachers House to facilitate the construction works in summer.
• From June 11^th to the end of the month, we plan construction works, esp. the traditional roof restoration at the former Teachers House.
• In July we want to restore the ruined parts of the ringwall and organise a workshop to teach this work to local people of the region.
• August 2018 starts with the big Saxon meeting. A lot of the previous villagers of German descent come back to their former home and keep their tradition alive. We expect more than 100 people in the culture hall of Movile and the farmer houses around.
• At the end of the month, from august 27^th -31^st we will organise a landscape workshop as part of the AFCP funding project. The aim is to sensitize people for the qualities of their landscape and give them a deeper understanding of landscape development.

Be curious about this year’s activities and keep the fingers crossed, that we will reach the set goals, be a good partner for the people of the village Movile, keep the historic cultural heritage and help to develop the changing landscapes around in a productive and sustainable manner. Of course, we are also happy if you tell your rich aunts and uncles overseas about our extraordinary churchfortress project and that there’s no better way to invest as in the future of Transylvanian Landscapes!