From 1542 to the Reformation, the Saxon church of Transylvania - which had adopted the Augsbourg religion - preserved (and still does) the characteristic of a popular church. In their native land, the colonists had already learned that, in wartime, it was better to leave one's village and save one's life and goods, by fleeing to the closest fortress . All that influenced their choice of the kind of colony fit for the place for such a construction. The arable land was shared according to the Flemish system; the houses surrounded by gardens were arranged in tight rows and made up villages along with streets, commons and squares; the churches stood in the centre of the village. In most cases, they were built on hills, which made them essy to reach and protect. This kind of gathering up brought about the need for reinforcing the churches that were raised almost everywhere after the Tatar invasion. In spite of subsequent profound changes, it is possible to reconstitute the aspect of church reinforcements, dating from the second half of the 13th century: almost all the basilicas from the colonisation times, as well as later constructions preserved massive towers, built under the west traverse of the central nave. These towers were built with sentry road and battlements, while the access paths were protected by a precinct wall, with a trench and entrance tower. While the first entrenced churches were inspired by the mediaeval pattern of the knights' strongholds, it seems that the Transylvanian pattern drew its inspiration from the counts' fortified mansions. Among the latter, only one, the Cilnic mansion in western Transylvania, lived through the centuries. Built in 1260, by count Chyl de Kelling, it includes a massive home-tower, with three storeys and a small chapel, having a semicircular apse, and is surrounded by an oval precinct wall. In 1430, the counts' descendants decided to open it to the free community of the village, which, in its turn, enlarged the stronghold with an outer precinct wall and a semicircular stronghold and raised in the inner courtyard supplementary walls, with constructions supported by the precinct wall. After an age of unrest, Transylvania underwent a peaceful period and, under Louis the Great (1342 - 1382), the German colonies reached a fine economic boom. Architecture flourished rapidly and there began the construction of the large churches of towns like Sebes, Cluj - Napoca, Sibiu, Sighisoara, Medias and Brasov. Soon afterwrds, the Turks trod Europe's land for the first time and, as a result of a heavy Turkish invasion in 1491, all over the place, the defence constructions began and continued to extend systematically.