A Herman Ottó Múzeum Évkönyve 20. (1981)

M. KOZÁK Éva: Régészeti kutatások a szalonnai református templomban

36 M. KOZÁK ÉVA were made of 30x14.5x5 cms large bricks. For some of the architectural elements (frieze, first row of the footing, entrance) ashlar was used. In front of the shrine of the round church the 12-13th c. pavement, trimmed with 28x14x5 cms large bricks was found 35 cms deep, under a layer of brick rubble and mortar. The vaulted arch built during the enlargement was made of bricks preserving mortar remains. The level of the round church was lifted during the extensions in the second half of the 13th c. with the rubble of the ruined western wall. The coloured pieces of plaster collected from the rubble fit into the wall paintings on the eastern wall of the nave of the round church, showing the Margaret legend. In some cases even the pieces of the frame could be identified. It shows that the painting ran over on the ruined western wall as well. At the beginning of the excavations a hole could be noticed at the meeting point of the shrine and the nave of the round church. Later the hole proved to have been a priestly sit in a niche. After the clearing off the filling of the round church, the basement of the building came to light. The western wall of the round church was found 800 cms far from the eastern wall of the shrine. The southern end of the wall remained somewhat higher. The stone basement was followed by a well elaborated ashler row, then by the brick footing. It is best demonstrated in the eastern wall of the nave. The outer ground floor of the round church has been found in the southeastern corner of the later enlargement of the nave. A square-formed stone pillar (110 X

110 cm) was found in the axis of the nave 444 cms from the western entrance of the church. Later a round pillar was attached to its eastern side. The square formed pillar comes from the Middle Ages, while the rounded one seems to have been the base of a wooden pillar supporting the wooden ceiling of the 17th c. Similar phenomenon can be noticed in the Rudabánya Calvinist Church also together with a wooden ceiling from the 17th c. The nave from the 13th c. had 160 cm high basement, the ground floor was found 30 cms deep. The western entrance, originally the entrance of the round church, is on a secondary place now. During the baroque building period inner alterations were made. During the 15th c. a square formed ossary was added to the southern side of the round church. Its western wall could not be found. No trace of entrance could be detected on the badly preserved walls. The ventry of the 15th c. can be reconstructed from the walls standing on the northern side of the shrine. Its entrance was found bricked in the wall of the nave of the round church. According to the documents the ventry was pulled down in 1808. The stones may have been used for the building of the baroque fencing wall. The furniture of the church comes from the 18-19th cc. The belfry standing in the yard is from 1786. Summing up we can tell, that the descendants of the Örsúr kin built their church in Szalonna, in the centre of their Szalonna estate, and used it also as a burial place, as it can be deduced from the skeletal finds, at the turn of