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ODORHEIU SECUIESC |
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ODORHEIU SECUIESC (Székelyudvarhely) lies 48km east of Sighisoara at
the end of a rail branch line. The centre of town is made up by two
squares, Piata Libertatii and Piata Márton Arón , where three churches
stand in a row: to the west, the former Franciscan monastery (1712-79),
reoccupied by Clarissite nuns since the revolution; on the island
between the two squares the Reformed church (1781); and on the hill
beyond, the Catholic church of Sf Miklós (1787-93), set between the
Jesuits' building of 1651 and the huge high school ( liceu ). From Piata
Libertatii, Strada Cetatii leads to the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century
citadel ; this now houses an agricultural college, but you can go inside
to stroll along the walls.
On the Sighisoara road, at Str. Kossuth 29, the museum (Tues-Fri
9am-4.30pm, Sat & Sun 9am-1pm) has a fine ethnographic collection, with
ceramics and Székely funerary posts ( kopjafálva ). The funerary posts,
used only by Calvinists and Unitarians, bear carvings of flowers or the
tools of the deceased's trade; some say that the posts hark back to the
days when a Magyar warrior was buried with his spear thrust into the
grave. Two kilometres further down the same road is the Jesus chapel ,
one of the oldest buildings in the area, built in the thirteenth century,
with a coffered ceiling - a distinguishing feature of Hungarian churches
- fitted in 1677.
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