What was that pagan Pecheneg doing on the hills of Codlea in the 12th century? Was he watching the line of Teutonic knights that came here to build a fortress, not of wood as King Andrew II had allowed them, but of stone, as the one in Feldioara? Or had he come together with the Szeklers to defend the kingdom from the Cuman enemies? Completely defeated one century before by the Byzantines, some of the Pechenegs sought refuge in Hungary and were probably sent to the eastern part of the Kingdom. They would attentively look at how the organized Teutonic order adapted the Black Fortress to the cliffy spur that watched over the Făgăraș plains and the hills of Perșani. It seemed it was going to last forever, not only until the invasion of the Tartars who managed to destroy it completely in 1335. 

The fusion of the capitals decorated with trees and spread images with the embrasure of the Romanesque portal dates from the 13th century, when the basilica must have been built by the German colonists. The western façade containing this impressive portal was built of limestone and its fronton is pierced by three narrow windows. Lacking a tower, the same as in Cisnădioara, the church devoted to Saint George and Saint Michael has preserved this feature throughout the centuries. During the Gothic period, the church underwent great transformations through which the choir acquired three sides and was covered with a rib vault supported by cylindrical or striated consoles. The windows of the choir are tall, and maintained the features of the transformations in 1432. On the north side the vestry was built on two levels. On the outside, the choir is supported by buttresses. A semicircular chancel arch separated the choir from the nave. On the outside, the transition between the two spaces is marked by two massive buttresses, taller than the ones of the choir. The church rebuilt in the Gothic period was affected by two major fires in 1685 and 1701. The remarkable coffered ceiling was made one year after the latter fire. The ceiling is made of 252 square coffers which are decorated with different versions of the rose of Martin Luther or Lutherrose. There is an octagonal medallion in the center, on which were painted winged angels and a crown of rays with the following inscription: Es werden nicht alle, die zu Dir sagen: Herr, Herr, ins Himmelreich kommen. (Not all that say Lord, Lord will go to the Kingdom of Heaven). Also, the following authors are mentioned: Johannes Stolz, Thomas Fayt, Simon Playger and Thomas Groß, whose portrait can be seen on the south wall. In the same year, a two level balcony was built on the north side. The organ with 2000 pipes, two keyboards and 28 divisions also belongs to the 18th century, and was built by the Silesian Johann Prause. 

In 1432, the same year when the Turks were making the second incursion in Bârsa Land accompanied by the ruler of Wallachia Alexandru Aldea, the church was surrounded by double curtain walls, strenghtened by four square towers defended and maintained by the guilds of coopers, blacksmiths, weavers and wheelwrights. The most extensive fortification from Bârsa Land will  be completed in the first quarter of the 16th century and consequently will acquire three belts of curtain walls. On the west side, a Zwinger was marked by a three meter wall. The old moat, delimitated by the second belt of curtain walls, was drained in the first half of the 19th century.  The blacksmiths’ tower, which was also the gate tower, was turned into a belfry, with a bell from 1477. Three centuries after this transformation, the slope roof common to all of the four towers was turned into a baroque one; the neo-Gothic roof dates from 1892. From the four towers with roofs, besides the already mentioned one, only the coopers’ tower and the weavers’ tower (the only one with crenels) were preserved; the wheelwrights’ tower was dismantled in the 19th century. The inner curtain wall was doubled by a series of storage rooms disposed on two or three levels, where the villagers kept their supplies.