Reformed Church, Sântămăria-Orlea

The church stands in Sântămăria-Orlea, a few kilometres south-east of Hațeg, on a small plateau near the old Kendeffy family manor. Built towards the end of the 13th century, around 1280, it is known as the church of the Cândea knezes; originally Catholic, it now belongs to the Reformed (Calvinist) church. The village appears in records from 1315, and in 1331 as “villa Sancte Marie”.

Built of rough stone with dressed-stone corners, it has a flat-ceilinged rectangular nave, a square five-storey tower on its west front with a richly carved Romanesque portal, and a rib-vaulted sanctuary. Its forms illustrate the transition from Romanesque to early Gothic in Transylvania.

Inside, significant fragments survive of a mural scheme uncovered from beneath whitewash from 1869 onwards. The main painting phase is dated by a Latin inscription to the year 1311.