A Herman Ottó Múzeum évkönyve 48. (2009)

Agócsné Halász Andrea: Szakrális kisemlékek Mezőkövesden

SACRAL RELICS FROM MEZŐKÖVESD Scholarly interest has only focused sacral relics and small monuments such as pictures hung on trees, wayside pictorial columns, chapels, roadside and cemetery crosses, statues, belfries and calvaries during the past few decades in Hungary. The proposal of hosting a photo exhibition, "Erected by Christian piety", in the Matyó Museum was first made in Spring 2007. The photos assembled by the Ethnologic Centre in Komárom of the Forum Minorities Research Institute documents the sacral relics and small monuments of the Hungarian settlements of Slovakia. The rich diversity of Roman Catholic sacral relics and small monuments in Mezőkövesd, Tard and Szentistván inspired my research in this field. I found over thirty relics in the area, all revered and vested with their own cult by the locals who had erected them. One of my main interests was mapping how the Matyó population transformed certain parts of the world around them into sacral spaces and how these spaces were filled with religious content in time and space. Presented in this study are a few wayside crosses and statues in the broader Mezőkövesd area. The documentation, description and publication of other types of relics are in progress. It is my conviction that this line of research should by all means be pursued because future generations should be familiar with the relics of the past since the future can hardly be built without a knowledge of the past. Andrea Halász