The Evangelical Church is selling parsonage houses in Transylvania!

The Evangelical Church is selling parsonage houses in Transylvania and asks of buyers, as a condition, deal, the administration of fortified churches in the same village, hoping they will keep them in good condition.

There are 200 churches across the country for which solutions for preservation are sought. Parsonage houses can be inhabited or transformed into guesthouses, while the churches should become social centers.  

One example, a building in Peli?or - Sibiu, formerly a parsonage house, is for sale for almost 140,000 euros. It has 6 high rooms, two bathrooms, a cellar, and an orchard with apple trees, over 7,000 square meters in size.  The Evangelical Church would like the future owner to also take care of the church on the hill.

Friedrich Gunesch, the general secretary of the Superior Consistory of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Romania, said, "In order for this ensemble to remain together, they should be used, if possible and necessary, for some social, personal, if not humanitarian, cultural, or touristic purposes."

The former parsonage house in Alma Vii was recently bought for 86,000 euros. It has 4 large rooms, hallways, and several cellars.  The new owner is the Mihai Eminescu Trust organization, which has long been maintaining the impressive fortified church in the village.  Alexandru Neagu, manager of Mihai Eminescu Trust, said, "We were thinking of having a few accommodation spaces for tourists because we also need an economic income."  The place already attracts thousands of tourists annually, with small events organized in the churchyard.

In Apo?, also in Sibiu, a young entrepreneur invested his earnings from abroad in the parsonage house. It is currently undergoing restoration.  The new owner has also taken over - for 1 euro per year - the evangelical church, where theater plays and mini-concerts will take place in the summer.

A similar plan targets the place of worship in Merchea?a - Bra?ov. A German long gone founded an association aiming to transform the church into a social center with a library, craft workshops, and accommodation.  C?t?lin Cantor, Stejarul Streifort Association: "We are trying to find a legal form to start the project, or we leave it as it is. Like many other churches in Transylvania, it will collapse, and we will lament."

The Parsonage House has already been sold to a local, whose parents took care of it for decades.  Walter Svab, local resident: "25,000 euros. Indeed, there are large, beautiful rooms, but they need maintenance."

In Homorod, the parsonage house has become a guesthouse. The guests are mostly Saxons who come to spend their summers in the village where they grew up.

Elisabeta Marton, the curator of the Parsonage House, said, "We didn't modernize it because that's how they wanted it, to remain as it was in the past."

There are fewer than 11,000 Saxons left in the country, who can no longer take care of the church's heritage.