The fortified church of “Cincu” is dedicated to the Virgin Mary and is one of the largest Roman basilicas located in a Saxon town in Romania. Due to the positioning of the building on a hill between the Olt and Hârtibaciu rivers, which has three very steep sides, the church is considered a unique basilica because its defense was only on the western side of the hill. The church was built in the village of “Cincu” in Brașov county by German settlers in the middle of the 13th century.

The settlement was founded by Saxon settlers in the middle of the 12th century, on a plateau located between the rivers Olt and Hârtibaciu. It soon became the center of Schenk (from the German word Schenk = tavern), mentioned for the first time in a document from 1329.

The fortification of the church took place between 1522-1526, as evidenced by the inscriptions in the choir and in the nave, but it also underwent changes after the passing of the Turkish danger and after the fire of 1789.