Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Sunday, 12 October 2025

Fortified churches of Transylvania


One of the irritants in watching so many videos are the AI generated voice overs. It seems that those compilers who use them also succumb to an overblown literary style for the scripts they write. The combination is deeply irritating for the viewer.

A good example of this is the video I want to draw to the attention of readers. Notwithstanding what I have just written, and also allowing for the rushed diction of the narrator, take a few gulps of air, or a stiff drink, to steel yourself and watch what is otherwise a visually impressive account of a number of the remarkable fortified churches of Transylvania. For no very clear reason, certainly one that is not explained, the video begins with the fortified Valère basilica at Sion in Switzerland before travelling east to Transylvania for the other churches it considers.

What emerges, for all the technical criticism of the presentation that I have made, are a group of quite astonishing buildings - astonishing both in their architecture and decoration, and astonishing in their survival.


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