Agria 38. (Az Egri Múzeum Évkönyve - Annales Musei Agriensis, 2002)

Löffler Erzsébet: Az egyház és az egri vár kultusza

Erzsébet Löjfler The Church and the Cult of Eger Castle The person responsible for the first attempts at the restoration of the castle, as well as the launching of a religious cult there, was the archbishop of Eger, János László Pyrker. Following his arrival in Eger in 1827 not only did Pyrker landscape the castle with trees and parkland he also erected three features: the Stations of the Cross, a statue of Saint Stephen of Hungary and the so-called Dobó Chapel. In doing so he turned the site into both a pilgrimage place and a national shrine. The first to be completed were the three crucifixes, which included the figures of Christ and the two thieves, put up in March 1828. The three crosses faced southwards in the direction of the town and the cathedral from whence the Saint Stephen's procession set off. The sculpture of St Stephen, carved by Marco Casagrande, was positioned on the remains of one of the pillars dating back to the medieval cathedral in 1835. This was followed by the construction of seven Stations of the Cross between 1832 and 1835. The stations amounted to alcoves into which reliefs of the passion cycle were placed. Each was surrounded by chest-high wrought iron fences with spikes on top. The Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre formed an integral part of the Stations of the Cross. It was situated in the one-time two-storied barracks on the south-eastern side of the hill where the crosses stood. One entered the chapel through a barred gate, and the floor was made of brick. Inside was an altar on which there was an altar cloth, a crucifix, canonical tablets, candlesticks, a pulpit, hassocks, a collection box and pictures. We know the exact contents of the chapel from an inventory dating from 1914. The destruction of the Stations of the Cross was due partly to a lack of proper maintenance and partly to the elements (in 1913 for instance one of the crosses was toppled during a gale). During the 1920s the Stations of the Cross started to be dismantled during the course of the ongoing archaeological investigations. Those which remained were demolished during the archaeological excavations which resumed in 1958. Whilst the second of the stations was completely destroyed during the dismantling process the others were put in the garden of the Archepiscopal Palace. The creation of the so-called Dobó Chapel and the bringing of István Dobó

's tomb cover from Dobóruszka (now Ruská, Slovakia) were also part of the archbishop's efforts in creating a cult of the castle. In 1833, János Buttler, the then owner of Dobóruszka, on realising that Pyrker was extremely keen on having something referring directly to the memory of the great castellan, used his posi225