Bélai Iván [et al.]: Köztéri alkotások

VI. Utószó

5. The Sitting Figure of Christ. This sandstone statue stands opposite the formal farmstead of the nuns, on the road leading to the Donkey's Hill (Szamárhegy). The figure of Christ, flogged and crowned with thorns, is sitting on a quadratic flagstone, on the top of a round column. His shoulders are covered with a cloak. In the late Gothic art the honour of the »Man of Sorrows« (Vir Dolorum) became very popular, and was practised in the Baroque as well. The statue was erected by István Ganóczi in 1766. 6. The Statues of the Square in front of the Basilica, a József Hebenstreit: King Saint Stephen 1771. b József Hebenrtreit: King Saint Ladislaus 1771. c Carlo Adami: Blessed Eusebius 1780. d Carlo Adami: Saint Marc of Körös 1780. These sandstone statues stand on red-marble prisms. They are a bit larger than life-size. The first two used to ornament the frontage of the formal Saint Stephen's Church, built at order of Mary-Theresa in 1767, and destroyed in 1821 when the constructions of the basilica started. The formal church of Saint Steven was designed by the architect Franz Anton Hillebrandt. He gave Hebenstreit the scale of the statues. József Hebenstreit was a sculptor of Austrian origins, but worked mainly in Hungary. The other two statues were probably made by Carlo Adami, a late-Baroque sculptor from Lugano, Italy. On many contract we can read his signature as »Magister Süttöiensis in marmore« (Master of marbles, Írom Süttő -a village near Esztergom, where the red marble has been mined.) The statues originally stood beside another statue of Saint John of Nepomuk, erected by Canon Márton Görgey near the thermal springs, at the place of today's »Fürdőszálló« (The Bath Hotel). This statue was later destroyed and the above mentioned ones have been taken into their present place during the arranging of the Basilica-Square. Until that, they were stored in the central store of the Chapter. Blessed Eusebius, canon of Esztergom, later a hermit in the Pilis-mountains, was the founder of the only Hungarian order, the Paulines He died in 1270, understood to be a saint. Saint Marc from Körös (1580-1619) was canon of Esztergom and a martyr, of Croatian origins. He was student of the Roman Collegium Germanico-Hungaricum. He was invited to be a canon in Esztergom by Péter Pázmány, who was cardinal at that time. Marc of Körös was executed by the guards of György Rákóczi I. in Kassa in 1619, with two Jesuits, István Pongrácz and Menyhért Grodecz (there was a great religious war in Hungary, and György Rákóczi was protestant 134 : Prince of Transylvania.) They were beatified in 1905 and canonised in 1995.