FORTE CULTURA Tourist Guide Book

36 \\ TOURIST GUIDE BOOK EXPERIENCE CULTURAL HERITAGE TRAVEL ARCHITECTURE FORTIFIED SACRAL BUILDINGS Fortified sacral buildings A mighty fortress is our God – bastioned cathedrals, monasteries and defensive churches Göttweig fortified monastery [AT] A famous hymn of the reformer Martin Luther (1483–1546) begins with the words “A mighty fortress is our God”. In particular the Reformation and the quest for supremacy of the Otto- mans sparked religious wars, leading to many sacral buildings being strengthened with early modern fortifications and cannon positions. That is also true of the world-famous All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, on whose door Martin Luther posted his 95 theses in 1517. One of the finest fortified sacral buildings in Europe is the Pauline monastery in Częstochowa [PL] in the shape of a square citadel. It is described a cultural and spiritual focal point of Poland. The Göttweig Benedictine Monastery towers high above the Austrian section of the Danube, resting on strong fortress walls. Further downstream in the Hungarian city of Esztergom, the Cathedral of Esztergom, the cathedral church of the Roma-Catholic archdi- ocese and mother church of Hungary towers over the landscape, surrounded by high fortress walls on the slopes of the Danube. It was destroyed by the Turks in the 16th century and rebuilt in the early 19th century. In addition to such imposing fortresses, between the Baltic Sea and the Adriatic lie numerous defensive churches, which had simple structures added to protect against attackers, and are of great interest to those with an eye for fortress architecture. Cathedrals, basilicas, monasteries and village churches that are equipped with typical fortifications for the use of artillery.