Founded in 1267 by a foreign Flemish community arrived as mercenaries for the Hungarian Medieval Kingdom and speaking a dialect that can be today found only in Luxemburg, Deutschekreuz/ Criţ kept his identity as Saxon village till our days.

The population setteled here is called Saxon by the time that the teritory we know today as Transylvania is included in the Medieval Hungarian Kingdom, and the population setteled here is given special rights, in particular personal, administrative and legal independance.

The smooth and in the same time logical display of Criţ invites you to explore it. The untainted medieval structure of the village together with the facades of the houses street takes you back in times, and the evanghelical church vitness the uniqueness and welfare of Saxon community.

The actual fortified church, it self an historical monument, is built in the very place that the old stone church documented from 1270 existed. The old church, dedicated to the Holly Cross, has been demolished in 1810 and the construction of the new neoclasic church is completed in 1814.

Old chests dated 1666 and 1724, painted banches from 1793 and old bells inscripted 1549 and 1551, seam to make the connection between the two establishments and the six centuries separating them.

Four out of 5 towers of the oval enclosure wall are still preserved and together with few warehouses are witnesses of the times of the tatar invasions when the Saxon population would gather inside the churches’ walls to be able to survive. (See more on fortified churches in Transylvania on : http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/596)

The longevity, wellfare and uniqueness of Saxon culture in Crit and other surrounding villages like Cloasterf, Viscri or Mesendorf is undoubtable due to their ingenious and extremely practical economical and administrative organization of the village. Remarcable is the division of the villagers in neighborhoods of 15-25 families with the purpose of helping one another in bigger undertaking around the house and activ participation in the village community. The leader, called The Big Father had the decisional role, and the Small Father, a younger person, was keeping the accounts and the administration of the group.

This extraordinary structure is kept in part till today by the new population that came in the village brought by the communist era.

My neighbour Domnica, actually called Buni, taught me with great passion what I need to know about making a great lichiu. So here it is :

1. Make a milk and semolina (pap) composition from 1 ½ l milk cooked with semolina, lemon zest and sugar to a sweet not to liquid but not to hard composition. This was once a popular dish for kids in Transylvania, like oatmeal was in the States. Of course you can’t ask for measures here, just tasted, and see it does not have lumps. Let it cool well.

2. Make a sweet dough (cozonac) from 1 kg flour, 2 yolks, one egg, 150 g sugar, 1 lemon zest, 100 ml oil (not olive oil), 50 g fresh yeast, salt and milk as much as it takes for a soft, dough. Let it rise till it double its volume.

3. Prepare a composition from 5 yolks mixed with 800 g sour cream.

5. Take 6-8 stalks of rhubarb, clean them from the hard out side layer and cut them in 1 cm segments.

4. Oil 3-4 large trays and put a 6-8 mm layer of the dough on the bottom of each of them, add a 1 cm layer of the semolina compozition and a layer of the sour cream composition. On top of these last layer spread the rhubarb (not to many). Bake on 180 Celsius till it starts to nicely brown on the top.

When still warm serve it with vanilla flavoured (this is important) caster sugar. Bonne appétit!