Szilasi Ágota, H.: Örökségünk védelme és jövője 1. A Dobó István Vármúzeumban 2014. február 7-8-án megrendezett Tudományos Konferencia tanulmánykötete - Studia Agriensia 32. (Eger, 2016)
Fodor László: Az egri várban feltárt 10-11. századi rotunda környezete, kutatása és analógiái
FODOR LÁSZLÓ LÁSZLÓ FODOR THE EXCAVATION AND RECONSTRUCTION OF THE 1 ITH CENTURY ROTUNDA NEXT TO THE CATHEDRAL AT EGER CASTLE At the end of the 1950s Eger Castle came under the professional direction of the National Inspectorate of Ancient Monuments (Országos Műemléki Felügyelőség (OMF-Budapest). With this started those research projects that were directed from Budapest central office. While the research work was orchestrated by Károly Kozák for the following two decades, the site work was overseen by a local building consortium which was set up, albeit under central(financial and planning) control. The planning work was undertaken by Mihály Détshy, János Sedlmayr, Klára H. Nándori, and latterly Gyula Cséfalvay. In the period immediately after the political changes of the late 1980s the only work that went on was the processing and publishing of the previously excavated material. The task of doing this was given to the local István Dobó Museum, the research being done by archaeologist László Fodor. Apart from the maintenance work carried out on the excavated structures there were further opportunities to carry out important research on the previously uncovered rotunda (baptistery). Once excavation work had been completed on the site of the rotunda, the site was restored and made available to the general public courtesy of the plans drawn up by Gyula Cséfalvay. It continues to be one of those places that can be seen by visitors. The round building with its five-metre diameter and small horseshoe-shaped chancel was uncovered next to the southern aisle of St Johns Cathedral among mixed finds dating from several periods. In the rubble that lay on top of the rotunda, and inside the rotunda’s interior, earlier burials came to light, which the researchers uncovered and documented. On the level of the recorded clay floor, at the centre of the building, stood a simply constructed tomb, in which there was a head support. The centralised structure, as well as the well documented cemetery fragment uncovered nearby with its early finds, and with the earlier stone carvings that had been recovered from the nearby wall structure in which they had been re-used (base and capital, various kinds of carved profiles), all point to the presence of an early ecclesiastical centre dating from the 10-11 th centuries. The presence of an early ecclesiastical centre, is further supported by the presence of architectural finds in both Eger and the county of Heves, where other centralised buildings from the same period have been uncovered. This is case for example in Abasár, Kisnána and on the edge ofMezőtárkány. Of particular interest is a structure of a similar date found in Eger outside the precincts of the castle underneath the pavement of the Franciscan Church, as well as in the chancel of the Rókus (Roch) Chapel in what would have been the old village of Almagyar. A rotunda makettje a vártörténeti kiállításban (fotó: Lónyainé Nagy Éva) 35
