The settlement where the first clock tower from Transylvania and the first lightning rod from the southeast Europe were built, known as a center of cloth processing, was founded during the reign of King Géza II. Priores flandrenses who settled in the middle of the 12^th century in the place which would later be called Heltau, brought with them not only an entire collection of prayers, hymns and teachings from the famous Codex Heltensis, which was used until the 15^th century, but also the worshipping of old Franc saint, as Saint Walpurga who was the patron of the basilica built in the center of the settlement. It seems that the settlement had another name before because, exactly when the crusaders established the Latin occupation of Constantinople, a document issued by King Emeric of Hungary in 1204 mentioned a settlement with the name of Rivetel. Only in 1323 it was attested as Heltau, when the term of civitas was used for a large settlement whose inhabitants mastered the craft of wool processing.

It is possible that the basilica had already been built at the time of the first attestation with the current name. Because of the demands of the community of drapers and blacksmiths, and also because of the tormented times, the church was gradually surrounded by a belt of walls with ditches and protected by defense towers. Moreover, alterations were made to the church, because of the changes of style or confession.

The Romanesque basilica made of stone, had a square choir with a semicircular apse, three naves separated by pillars. A strong and tall belfry was built on the west side. Its ground floor was cross vaulted, as the aisles. The levels of the towers are marked by battlements, except the last one which has twin Romanesque windows. Compared with the inferior floors which have ceilings, this one was given a cross vault. The west portal, although transformed during the Late Gothic period, still preserves some Romanesque capitels which, by resembling the ones from neighboring Cisnădioara, date the church immediately after the Mongol invasion in 1241. A similar capital was found integrated in the masonry of the church from Saschiz.

During the strengthening works which were made after the Turkish invasion in 1493, above the choir was raised a bastion on four levels perforated by crenels but without machicolations. The vaulting of the choir was made with ribs supported by consoles which are absent nowadays. Proofs of the Late Gothic style are the broken arch windows decorated with flamboyant motifs. At the same time, a vault with ogives supported by consoles was raised above the central nave. The seven floor belfry was flanked by two bastions, on the north and south side, the apse chapel on the north aisle was transformed into a vestry whose door has beaten iron decorations. The two portals have crossed rib decorations, the one on the south side bearing the evidence of Renaissance motifs through the cornice with dentils. Between 1985 – 1986 restoring works were carried, leading to the discovery of a fresco of Saint Walpurga - the patron of the church, inside the choir, on the south wall; on the north wall was discovered the portrait of the priest Petrus Plebanus who seems to have had an important role in building the church.

Beginning with the 16^th century, the church was surrounded by three stone and brick curtain walls which were provided with defense corridors, towers (the Lard Tower, the School Tower, the Ironsmiths’ Tower, the Gate Tower) and bastions. A ditch that could be filled with water was arranged between the first two curtain walls. The defense corridors were placed on massive arcades and had access stairs from place to place. In 1910, the gate tower was demolished and in the other three towers was opened a Saxon ethnographic museum.

Besides the importance of the fortified complex in Cisnădie, there are other treasures from different periods which are worth mentioning. In a barrel vaulted ossuary, under a pile of skulls and bones, a wooden processional cross was discovered, which could date from the 12^th or 13^th century. Another reliquary cross, dating from 1400, worked in the enamel technique is richly decorated with the images of local saints among which appear Saint Barbara, Saint Walpurga, Saint Margaret, Saint Mauritius or Saint Servatius. A beautiful silver – gilt chalice, dating from the first half of the 15^th century is also decorated with the images of Saint Walpurga and Saint Servatius. The two pieces were part of the treasury of the church and, despite of the changes brought in Transylvania by the Reformation that caused the destruction of the ecclesiastic inventory through melting, in Cisnădie the so-called Treasure room was preserved: a hidden niche under a false wall. The baptismal font is also from the 15^th century but the most valuable piece of this period is the central altarpiece painted on both sides; on its central panel were represented the Virgin and the Child. The altar didn’t belong to the church of Cisnădie, but was brought from the church in Bruiu. Although it can’t be found in the church anymore, one of the most important paintings from the 16^th century was from here, namely the inferior part of the altar representing the Aparition of Jesus, made in 1525 by Vicentius Cibiniensis.