Folia archeologica 23.
Ferenc Fülep – György Duma: Examinations of the Wall Paintings in the Cella Trichora of Pécs
CELLA TRICHORA OF PÉCS 21 I symbolically, as the first sign of the decline of Greek (Basilian) monasteries in Hungary. 6 1 This process was considerably fastened by the conquest of Constantinople by the crusaders in 1204 and by the establishment of the Latin Empire. 6 2 As it has been mentioned earlier, the flourishing period of the use of the Kufic motifs as architectural ornaments was during the ii-i2th centuries in Greece. Taking into consideration its chronology, the Kufic motifs of the wall painting in Pécs together with the appearance of the curtain pattern can be dated to the end of the I ith and to the 12th centuries taking the period of the reign of Béla III as the upper time limit. The time 6 3 suggested by T. Nagy the apparently extremely logical argumentation that the painting of the chapel was done at the beginning ot the nth century parallel to the construction of the cathedral in Pécs, seems to be too early as, in our view, it cannot be surmised that the motif appears almost simultaneously in Athens and in the distant Pannónia. But in the neighbourhood of the cathedral of Pécs there was not only one but two periods of large scale building activities in the nth century. The first one was the construction of the cathedral at the beginning of the century, which was presumably only completed by King Peter 6 4 (I1046). The second period followed the destruction of the cathedral of Pécs by fire in 1064 which was mentioned by the chronicles as well. 6 5 According to the chronicles the whole church and the palaces and other buildings attached to it were ablaze and had collapsed as the flames were spreading. Even the bells fell from the towers. From this it becomes clear that the cathedral and the major buildings surrounding it, perhaps even those that had contained the cella trichora, were completely destroyed, consequently the cathedral and its locality had to be entirely rebuilt during the second half of the nth century. This was the second major period of construction in the history of the cathedral of Pécs, coinciding with the second half of the nth century to which presumably the rebuilding and second painting of the cella trichora may also be linked. The curtain pattern is rare after the 12th century but that it was still practised, can be traced even in Rome 64 therefore it does not contradict the above dating either. 6 1 Moravcsik, Gy., Görög nyelvű ... p. 421. 6 2 Idem, Studia Byz. p. 339.; Idem, Byzantium ... p. 95. 6 3 Nag)', T., Szépművészet 1941. p. 148. 6 1 Képes Krónika - Chronicon Pictum. cap. 85. King Peter „Sepultus est Quinque Ecclesiis, quam ipse fundaverat . . ." 6 5 Ibid. cap. 98.; Gos^tonyi, Gy., A pécsi Szt. Péter ... p. 78. ее Cf: Note 40.
