Várak és erődített helyek a Kárpát-medencében

Barcaszentpéter, Tatárvár

The history behind the Barcaszentpéter (Petersburg, Sânpetru) fortress remains unknown till present day. My impression is that the building could have been one of the 5 stone fortresses built after 1211 by the Teutonic Order conquered by our king II. Endre (King Andrew II of Hungary) in 1225. The mountain and the church located right on top of it were first mentioned in a certificate called “Ecclesia Mons sancti Petri” in 1211. This makes it probable that the church constructed inside the fortress had already been used as a parish church by the Saxon community that’s been living under the foothills of this mountain. As for the fortress itself, it might have been destroyed by the king’s command after it had been conquered from the Teutonic Order. Subsequently, a larger church was built right within the village and the Petersberg name also started being applied to the village. This name was also used under the form of Petersburg. The mountain’s moniker could origin from the chapel’s found on top of it, while the fortress itself was probably called Petersburg by the Teutonic Knights. This was hardly unrelated from the fact that in 1224 the head of the Order, Hermann von Salza, wanted to seize the Order’s territory from the Kingdom of Hungary, and place it under the authority of The Papal State. At the same time, the Order gave the name Marienburg to Földvár (Feldioara),  which was a nearby settlement designated as their headquarter.

Orbán Balázs gives a great depiction of the fortress in his book published in 1973. He saw traces of a stack of wall in the inner terrain’s margins, furthermore he reports that in the middle of the 19th century the village’s elder generation even remembered the stone stack of the fortress’s filled well (or tank?). In the summer of 2004 we also noticed some plaster-work remains and medieval bricks inside the fortress. It’s not unlikely that the bricks originate from the church. The location and remembrance of the fortress persists, however the date of its conception and function has been forgotten. The community dating back to the modern period knew its name as Taterburg-Tatárvár (today Vârful Cetății). This proves not only the limitations of folk memory, but demonstrates its willing tendency to interpret everything, as well. There’s also a mention from the year 1400 of a chapel called Saint Gervasius  - Szent Gyárfás in Hungarian - , which was granted consent of indulgence by the Pope. It is likely that the old church, which was standing on the mountain when the new church was being built in the village, got a new title and the Szent Péter (Saint Peter) patronage was taken over by the new parish church.

/Dénes József/

(English translator: Boglárka Sebestyén)

Source: Karczag Ákos – Szabó Tibor: Erdély, Partium és a Bánság erődített helyei. Budapest, 2012. 97-98.