Marisia - Maros Megyei Múzeum Évkönyve 29/3. (2009)
Soós Zoltán: Coat of Arms Representations ont he Stove Tiles of the Târgu Mureş Medieval Franciscan Friary
200 SOÓS ZOLTÁN order or to purchase luxurious stoves from different workshops.1 Although we know that stoves were already spread in urban areas from the late fourteenth century, the urban elite could not afford such expensive investments. Therefore the stoves found in urban context were rather modest, most of them had engobe paint or just the natural ceramic surface and only a smaller number was glazed. By the end of the fifteenth century there were several workshops working in the urban area that basically copied the models used in the royal court, representing knights, biblical themes, saints, floral motives and this also meant the spread of stove tiles with the coat of arm of the towns. In the western part of the kingdom we have tiles with the coat of arm of Pozsony (Bratislava), Kassa (Kosice) or Buda. The towns coat of arm is a certain proof of the existence of workshops in Kassa, Buda or Besztercebánya (Banska Bistrica), were a large number of the high quality stoves found in the royal or aristocratic residences was produced.1 2 In Transylvania the earliest glazed stoves appeared at the end of the fourteenth century and they were discovered at the excavation3 of the medieval bishopric palace in Alba Iulia.4 Among the glazed stove tiles there was a fragment representing the Anjou lily symbol. In this early period the symbol is probably the representation of the royal coat of arm, therefore the stove could have been part of a royal donation. This is the earliest appearance of high quality stoves in Transylvania so far. Glazed stove tiles are identified in larger number at several archaeological excavations from the second half of the fifteenth century. In the last decade archeological excavation of important medieval sites5 brought several information regarding the spread of the new type of material culture, that proved that there is no significant delay between Transylvania and the rest of the Hungarian kingdom, as the old fashioned historiography considered. This explains the existence of the wide variety of the high quality glazed stove tiles in the case of the Tärgu Mure? Franciscan friary. The archaeological research at the site of the former Franciscan friary of Tärgu Mure? brought up a large number and various types of stove tiles from the late fifteenth, early sixteenth century. A small group of the tiles contains heraldic symbols representing the coat of arm of aristocratic families and the coat of arm of a town. Most of the stove tiles discovered in the friary was identified in the area of the demolished northern wing.6 The most important community rooms and places such us the refectory, the dormitories and the library were identified in this part of the friary. Probably most of the heating installations were displayed in rooms or spaces used by the friars in the winter time as well. The concentration of the archaeological material around the cellar of the friary is the result of the destruction, when the buildings were demolished most of the construction material was reused except the broken stoves, bricks and roof tiles, which were thrown in the former cellar. The same phenomena happened in the case of the wall negatives filled with the dirt resulted from the demolitions. Due to this refilling several archaeological items were 1 See the stove of the Salzburg bishop. 2 Feld et al. 1996. 3 Marcu Istrate 2009, 140-141, 389, Tabel 2. 4 Since 1003, Transylvania belonged to the Alba Iulia Catholic bishopry except the Saxon territory. 5 Stoves were identified at several late medieval Transylvanian excavation sites at Sibiu, Cluj, Vintu de Jos, Deva, Teiu§, etc. 6 See picture Nr. 1.
