Marisia - Maros Megyei Múzeum Évkönyve 33/4. (2013)
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252 Zs. Nyárádi of pots and ceramic cauldrons with bottom stamps.2 So far we do not have any material evidence regarding the settlement’s first church, but we suspect that it can be found entirely inside today’s church, where until now there have been no archaeological excavations. Its existence is indicated by early (12th-13th century) graves on top of which the wall of the church’s nave stands today. It is similar to what was uncovered in 2009 and in 2012. The early Romanesque church was completely taken down by the end of the 13th century and none of its materials were used in the building of the next church. At least this is what the base ledge carved from soft sandstone, stretching all around the building’s nave suggests. On the western side, where the nave and the tower meet, László Dávid regarded the roughness of the 3-4 meter high wall to indicate that it came from using an earlier church wall.3 During the beginning of the 14th century a large church was build in the same spot, supposedly with an elongated semicircular sanctuary, at least this is what the observations from the 1966 renovation indicate. The layout still bears the transitional features of the Romanesque church, the most obvious example for this being the western gateway with the interior part having a semicircle shaped top while its exterior ribbed archivolt ends in a pointed arch. The carvings have suffered considerable damage over time but we may find more detailed descriptions about them in Balázs Orbán’s writings.4 During this time a tower was also built along the nave’s western side. Its eastern wall protrudes into the interior space of today’s church. This building is one of the earliest towers in the Székely Land. The monstrance compartments, originally built into the southern and northern walls of the nave, indicate that two secondary altars were probably placed inside the nave, near the arch (Plate 11.7). The northern one has a straight top while the southern one has a pointed arch shaped top and its upper third is divided into two parts with a sharpened rim which also points to the transitional style. The upper third of the pointed arch has an Anjou fleur-de-lis, which was used as a decorative element during the time of Charles I (Charles Robert) (Plate 11.6 ). A similar one can be found on a shield shaped blazon relief, which also dates back to the 14th century, in the sanctuary of a church in nearby Nagygalambfalva (Romanian: 2 Ferenczi 1974, 166-169. 3 Dávid 1981, 86. 4 Orbán 1. 38. Porumbenii Mari).5 The secondary altars were discovered in 2012 during the restoration and excavation of the wall and after a close inspection of their surroundings it became obvious that they were built at the same time as the wall itself. In 2009 we had already noticed on the northern side of the sanctuary the traces of a vestry predating the gothic building (Plate 2.4). Its foundation walls were completely unearthed during the landscaping that had been done in 2012. Underneath the wall made up of small pebbles, yellowish gray lime chunks and mortar we discovered a grave in which we found two hair rings with ‘S’ shaped endings.6 There are very few known early vestries such as this in Udvarhely County (Udvarhelyszék) but this is mainly due to the lack of archaeological data. In 1993 another building predating the gothic vestry was discovered during the rescue excavation in Vargyas (Romanian: Värghif).7 The building section discovered at the ruined church in Kányád (Romanian: Ulie§), through analogy being considered a vestry built during the 14th century on the southern side of the sanctuary, is so far unique in Udvarhely.8 This also points out that one can find early vestries in the Székely Land on both southern and northern sides. The frescos depicting Ladislaus I of Hungary (Szent László), Margaret of Antioch and the Final Judgment cycles were painted on the northern wall of the church in Bögöz during the second half of the 14th century (Plate 1.6-7). The exterior of the church was also supposedly painted at this time. At least this is what the fresco fragments both small and large, found especially on the northern but also on the southern side, appear to indicate. These were recovered during the excavations from the filling of the graves and the level of the gothic building. They appeared in greater quantities in 2009, inside trench 2, in the pit which had been dug next to the wall of the gothic sanctuary, the other half of which we excavated in 2012. The filling of the pit yielded a large quantity of bluish grey, brown, red, pink and white colored fresco fragments. A cemetery wall of stone was built around the new church, of which we discovered traces during the 2012 excavation, southeast from the church (Plate 2.2). Its layer was covered by grey, dense humus slightly mixed with chunks of 5 Dávid 1981,215. 6 Sófalvi 2010, 34. 7 Bartók 1995, 145-146. 8 Derzsi - Sófalvi 2008, 270.
