Saxon Villages of Transylvania: Myles Maydew (Loch Lomond & the Trossachs National Park)
Saxon villages of Transylvania
The way that the houses are built in a certain area is normally related to the building materials in the locality and the needs of the population. Traditionally in the Saxon villages of Transylvania, these appear to be local clay-like soil and the need to protect themselves and food thieves. The buildings were mostly made from fired brick with render covering:
The general design is a facade at the front with a strong gate, the house to the side of this, with a Barn at the back. Behind the Barn would generally be an area of land for crops (normally about 0.5ha)
Each house would then adjoin to another and create a wall to keep thieves away. All the houses we saw had very thick lower walls, over 1m generally, so very hard to break into.
The thieves were mostly small raiding parties so it was possible to defend from the houses. Sometimes however a larger group attacked which necessitated the construction of stronger defence that could protect the whole village. The approach taken here was to build fortified churches.
If things got a bit nasty the whole village would retreat to the church, which could protect and sustain them for a short period while help was sought!
One interesting part of this church is called the Bacon Tower, here the people hung their cured pork securely so it would sustain them during a siege. Once a week they would be allowed to cut some off and take home for their family.
Part of the local folklore tells that the Saxons would also use pork as a form of biological weapon against the Muslim Turk raiding parties. They would leave the pigs in the main enclosure of the house and smear bacon fat on valuable items, the Turks would then not touch these items or even enter the enclosures as pork was forbidden to them.
One thing I noticed while walking around these villages was the interesting designs I saw on the buildings:
When I asked about these designs, I was told that these showed which community that the house belonged to. I was told that in each village there are several communities, each looking out for their members. These still exist and you pay a fee to belong to a community, however the community then supports you if you have a child, get married or die (along with other life big events). 
One night over our evening meal our host said she was just going out to deliver a cake for a couple in her community that are getting married, she said that everyone would support the wedding in this way. On reflection I realised that community was very import to all the people we met and that it is something that is not as strong in the country I life in. 
One of my main take away points from my visit Romania with Adept was this sense of community as without them it would be very hard to succeed in their work. This has inspired me to look at ways to build a stronger links myself and find way we can all work together to support each other.