H. Szilasi Ágota - Várkonyi Péter - Bujdosné Pap Györgyi - Császi Irén (szerk.): Agria 50. (Az egri Dobó István Vármúzeum Évkönyve - Annales Musei Agriensis, 2017)
H. Szilasi ÁGOTA: Múzeum, mint menedék. Noszvaj község egykori középkori temploma festett kazettás famennyezete és a műemlékvédelem
FORRÁSOK Dobó István Vármúzeum (DIV) Iparművészeti leltárkönyve Ltsz.: 79.20.1.1. - 79.20.1.34. Dobó István Vármúzeum Fotóadattára Herman Ottó Múzeum (HÓM) leltárkönyve Herman Ottó Múzeum Adattára 73.33.26. a-b. Herman Ottó Múzeum Fotótára FN 8341,. 8342. Ágota H. Szilasi MUSEUM AS A SAFE HAVEN The former medieval church of Noszvaj, its painted cassette wood block and monument protection The Noszvaj presbytery had been considering the renovation (roof repairs) of the church since 1901, however the small Roman/Gothic style stone church from the 12-14 centuries, which had been acquired by the Reformist congregation in the mid-1600s, was eventually demolished in 1928. The protection of historic monuments already existed at the time and the church, together with its unique coffered wooden ceiling from the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries, was already on the records, however, the institution was still in its infancy. The Reformist congregation chose to consider only practical reasons, coupled with a certain amount of vanity (the neighbouring village already had a “new” church and the steeple would have looked better on the street front), failing to respect the value of such a heritage. Although several art historians and architects visited the village to survey the church, and the state also had plans for the refurbishment of the ceiling and listing it as a historic monument, when it came to the decision on the fate of the church, the presbytery members ignored the appeal of antiquity and did not realise what a treasure they owned. Some of the church’s carved stones and most of the coffered wooden ceiling, which was worm-eaten and rather decayed, were eventually taken to the Dobó Castle Museum in 1961, where after restauration they were preserved and exhibited in the Gothic Palace. This is when their museological study also started. Since then the unparalleled beauty and the unique iconography of the coffered wooden ceiling from the Noszvaj church have been admired by many visitors. The study recounts this sad, but also fortunate journey, briefly describing the rich motives and symbolism of the painted coffers, everything we know about their origin and about how the village was acquired by the Eger castellan János Figedi in 1558 and how it converted to the Reformed faith. * * 247
