THE PARISH HOUSE

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The house is one of the most representative buildings in the period between the Gothic style and the Renaissance. The building is placed on the old foundation of a wooden house which probably functioned also as a parish house. It is made out of four wings which form an inner courtyard.

The extraordinary element of the house is the portal with Gothic and Renaissance influences which was realized by Andreas Lapicida, the most important Renaissance sculptor of Transylvania. The portal was realized on the order of Johannes von Altzen (Alţâna). On the superior panel the sculptor made the blazon of the one who ordered the work. A rising lion jutting out of a crown which holds a cross in its mouth. Around the blazon we see the bas-reliefs of Saint John the Baptist, emperor Frederick the Third of the Holy Roman Empire of German Nation, of the Pope Alexander the Fourth Borgia and obviously of the people.

The inscription reminds of the role of the Emperor and of the Pope in the allegory under it. The elements which remind of Renaissance are the rectangular hollows of the windows and the form of the portal which is equally rectangular. As a consequence of the restoration works between the years 2004 – 2006 three wall paintings on the façade were uncovered and conserved, one represented the Saint John the Baptist, probably the titular saint of the people, one represented Virgin Mary with the baby Jesus, and the third is the blazon of the King of Hungary, Mattias I Corvin.

The restorations of the year 1808 changed the woodwork but also the initial shingles of the house. The inner courtyard has a series of elements of historical visual arts such as the false traverses. The building keeps a tower of the citadel of Sibiu in the third fortification circle which encircled the entire Upper Town. Today it is the building of the Evangelical Parish of Sibiu.