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Most villages analysed in this paper are located in the region between the rivers Târnava Mare and Târnava Mică and only some of them lie in the former noblemen's enclaves on royal lands, to the west of Târnava Mare. Those settlements were subject to the 1992-1996 research within the Romanian-German project to inventory the villages in the Saxon colonisation area in Transylvania. Proposing those settlements as the subject of this paper was primarily motivated by the wish to make known and, therefore, liable to be protected aspects of the Transylvanian Saxons' culture that correspond to a less extent to the clichés constituted in the collective imaginary on the German colonisation settlements in Transylvania. Moreover, the features of these settlements recommend them as responding to the aspects of the vernacular architecture as they were defined over time. They are, to the same extent as the free villages, the "fundamental expression of a community's culture". They also are a "witness of a society's history" and represent the "traditional and natural means by which those communities created their habitat"; "though utilitarian, they are, however, of interest and have aesthetic value", being also a "constant adaptation in response to social and environmental constraints", and having "coherence of style, form and aspect" (quotes from the "Charter on the Built Vernacular Heritage", of the ICOMOS consultative committee, Stockholm, September 10-11, 1998). Keeping their features that make them important to history is threatened not only by the elements of the dissolution of the rural civilization, which are generalized in the entire country, but also by the specific challenges faced by the German colonisation settlements in Transylvania. The lack of knowledge, even by decision-making specialists, of the importance of those settlements as visible signs and still well-kept "sources" of that "little" history of the rural space, which is so little documented, leads to the loss of the aspect and historic substance of those settlements. Although they benefited from spontaneous reviving phenomena, in the absence of the specialists' assistance, irreplaceable elements giving individuality and historic value to those villages may be destroyed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present research we have analyzed the place that Transylvania magazine had in between the Romanian magazines, starting from the appreciations of the researchers that had studied varied aspects concerning de Association's periodical. We have not left out the papers of those who have dealt with the analysis of the Romanian press' history. Nevertheless, we have relied on our own research made during the doctoral programme, where we studied the evolution of Transylvania magazine between 1868-1919, a time frame that we have included in our present study. Another problem that we have wanted to highlight is the one linked to the editorial aspect of the magazine. And in this analysis we started from the information supplied by the specific historiography, which we classified according to our own results. Our approach did not stop over every editor between 1868-1919, as a matter of fact we did not even want to do this, to emphasize the general characteristic of the magazine and not the one that stood out in a certain period of time is our goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present research we have analyzed the place that Transylvania magazine had in between the Romanian magazines, starting from the appreciations of the researchers that had studied varied aspects concerning de Association's periodical. We have not left out the papers of those who have dealt with the analysis of the Romanian press' history. Nevertheless, we have relied on our own research made during the doctoral programme, where we studied the evolution of Transylvania magazine between 1868-1919, a time frame that we have included in our present study. Another problem that we have wanted to highlight is the one linked to the editorial aspect of the magazine. And in this analysis we started from the information supplied by the specific historiography, which we classified according to our own results. Our approach did not stop over every editor between 1868-1919, as a matter of fact we did not even want to do this, to emphasize the general characteristic of the magazine and not the one that stood out in a certain period of time is our goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The activity of achieving the scientific evidence of cultural goods belonging to archaeology as a basic synthesis necessary to the contemporary Romanian historiography was and still is considered to be deficient at the present time. The 3D reconstruction and modelling can be a good way for disseminating valuable information to a larger public. The main goal of our paper is to present a general overview of the reconstruction of the basilica in Roșia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This project, the study of the research's progress, over time, of the fortified Saxon churches from Transylvania, is required because of the abundance of works for the tourists published in recent years. We will try, however, to speak especially about the scientific work that seem to be the best in the last century, and about some of the promotion materials of churches. It goes without saying that we do not claim to treat the subject exhaustively, but we intend to point out certain aspects that distinguish the pile of papers published over time. We therefore propose a classification of works as measured by the period of occurrence, knowing that historical research have a strong conection with the time when they were performed and with the type of (political) leadership able to treat a subject in a greater or lesser extent. Nowadays, interest in the history of the Transylvanian Saxons increases significantly, we believe, due to the tourism development, but perhaps because of awareness, that the immense artistic endowment is in danger of disappearing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper is concerned with medieval weapons dating from the 13th Century in Southern and South-Eastern Transylvania, a territory which was then under the military domination of Teutonic Knights and Saxon colonists, in connection with weaponry outside the Carpathians, territories placed at that time under nomadic and especially under the Cumans' domination. By comparing these weapons with similar items from Europe and with weapons depicted in medieval figurative art one can observe a predominant use in Transylvania of specific types of swords adapted for fights against the nomads. The occurrence of these types of swords in the area was connected with the military activity of the Teutonic Knights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]