Part of the cultural heritage of each city are buildings and churches. Both categories are testifying about the past and while buildings can take another face in time with every restoration work, churches tend to remain the same as changing style is not really allowed.
The more multicultural a city is, the more chance you get to see churches of different religion. Also, the oldest a city is, the more chance to see some really interesting churches from architectural point of view.
Europe is an old continent, has a rich past, therefore you can see many medieval fortresses and churches. I'd like to explore and document these buildings and churches and capture as many as possible.
Not long ago I took you on a tour in Reghin, an old town of Transylvania and showed you the majority of the churches. Today I'd like to show you a few churches in Targu Mures, another old city of Transylvania.
Not far from the medieval fortress of Targu Mures, there are two churches, one of which is the stone church, or the Bob church how it is also called. The name comes from the founder of the place, Bishop Ioan Bob of the Diocese of Făgăraș.
This is the marble plaque above the main entrance, that stands as a witness of the past.
He built and decorated John BABB, Bishop of Fogarasi.
Unfortunately the church is not open to the public, only when there is a service, so I can't show you the inside and could not find any photos online either.
One interesting church of the city is the wooden church (Romanian Orthodox church), which situates at the Mitropolit Andrei Șaguna Street in Târgu Mureș, next to the cemetery, in the vicinity of the other church I mentioned above.
The church was finished in 1814.
The church is not open to the visitors, so photographing is very difficult her. Therefore you have a photo of the interior I took from Wikipedia, to show you what it looks like. As you can see, the altar is the typical one, also there are those carved wooden chairs on the side of the church you see in most of the Romanian churches.
I was able to find another orthodox church, opposite to the county hospital, in a remote area. This was also a wooden church, which must be newer though. I think it was built somewhere to the end of the 20th century, mid 80's maybe.
This one seems bigger than the previous one.
There were two rear doors visible, both made of wood and nicely carved.
As you can see, the front of the church is everything but usual. It is all carved wood.
There were two small towers next to the church, which I have no idea what purpose could serve.
In front of the church there was a small square with this statue, behind with there was the parsonage, which seemed three times the size of the church.
There are always things you don't understand and can't get an answer to your question as it would look inappropriate.
Last, but not least, here's a different church, a reformed church. This is not the usual church as it's not old, must have been built a few decades ago, so definitely not the medieval type.
The reformed churches are also closed for public visitation but this time I was lucky as I saw a caretaker in the door and asked permission, which was granted.
The church can be found at the exit of the city, towards Reghin. The church is at the ground floor, plus the office and the first floor is occupied by the parsonage.
The church has an L shape, this is the longer part, that looks to the main street. At the time of my visit, every second bench was marked as not available, due to social distancing.
On each bench there were 4 church hymnal books, that people can use during church services. These hymnal books had a nice, hand embroidered cover, which I was told have been made by women from the community.
What was interesting here was the amount of woodwork. Starting from the benches, continuing with the chandelier and pulpit, everything was made of wood. This chandelier was decorated with folk elements, one of which is the tulip, with is the symbol of Hungarians.
This is the pulpit and the main spot of the church. That is the table the communion is served.
This is a wall decoration commemorating 450 years of the Heidelberg Catechism, which was in 2013.
This is the other part of the church, way shorter than the other.
This is the pulpit, all made of wood and carved as well. The embroidery you see there is the typical Hungarian "Írásos".
You may wonder what's behind that wooden thing, that looks like a counter. That's where the electronic organ is. Bigger and older churches have real organs, but in a church as small as this, that's out of the question.
This is the bench where the other church officials are staying, the other priest for example.
This is a carved wooden holder for numbers indicating the song that will be sung during the service. Before the service, whoever is responsible is loading the holder with the appropriate numbers.
Unitarian churches are similar to reformed christian churches. The simplicity of the reformed christian and Unitarian churches, compared to catholic and orthodox cathedrals is amazing.