Bélai Iván [et al.]: Köztéri alkotások

VI. Utószó

I. STATUES AND RELIEVES 1.1. 18th CENTURY Pál Cséfalvay 1. The »Kuckländer-Madonna« The oldest open-air memorial of Esztergom stands on the Palace-hill, on the south-eastern side of the Basilica. It was made of sandstone, but we know nothing about its author. The quadratic column with carved rangles of leaf raises form a fundament ornamented with Rococo- style cartouches. On the top stands the Madonna on her own, with his child on her right arm, and a sceptre in her left hand. This statue is a copy of the so-called Madonna of Aborting. (Altötting is a famous Bavarian-pilgrim- place. Its famous statue of the Madonna was made of lime tree.) The story of the erection of the statue: baron Ferenc Kuckländer was commander of the castle in Esztergom between 1706 and 1719. He and his wife, Maria Benigna Truchlin were deeply religious. They were buried in the franciscan church: rhe husband before the altar of the Sacred Heart, and his wife in che chapel of Lorecco she had founded. That is why we can see their family coat-of-arms on the srreet-side-front of the chapel. After the revolt led by Ferenc Rákóczi chere was a huge epidemic of plague in Esztergom, and rhe couple erected the above mentioned statue as a remembrance of it. The statue stood at the castle market square that was situated before the place which is today called Water-bastion. Erecting plague remembrance statues was very popular in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. On all sides of the above mentioned statue's fundament there is a hardly legible Lacin inscription which also hides a chronosticon: SISTE VIATOR ET CVOS Magnae Del genitriCI Monstra saCros et / DeVotos affeCtVs Vt haeC Det paCeM Ungaro aC Lve MaLa Depastas Vrbes / MVndet CVnCtas. Pilgrim, stop here for a while, and present to the Holy Virgin your sacred emotions, so that she give peace to the Hungarian, and thus, all cities infected by the plague should be cleaned. HAC NE VADA VIA QVIN DICAS AVE MARIA Do not cross the road without saying a • Hail Mary-! HANC STATUAM HONOR1 B:M:V: OETTINGANAE EXTRUI CURAVIT EXCELLTISSIMA ET ILLUSTRISSIMA DOMINA NATA A TRUCHLIN BENIGNA MARIA KUKLENDER IN ANNO 1710. 1. Maji.This statue of the Madonna of Altötting was erected by the