Marisia - Maros Megyei Múzeum Évkönyve 33/4. (2013)
Articles
Data concerning changes in a cemetery surrounding a medieval church 253 mortar and had been covered by the debris from the gothic nave’s ceiling (beginning of the 18th century). This wall had been taken down some time during the gothic reconstructions and then rebuilt on a larger scale. The wall, with its shallow foundation (20-25 cm) and 75-80 cm thickness could not have had a serious defensive role, it was merely a low wall closing oft' a sanctified area, which completely disappeared after it was torn down and new graves were dug in its place. The excavated wall section was no doubt part of an early stone cemetery wall in the area, to which the earliest reference dates back to the 15th century.9 More significant work on the church was only done in the second half of the 15th century, when it was completely rebuilt according to the gothic spirit of the time. Supposedly, the sanctuary was demolished first and then rebuilt, extended a bit, with a polygonal closure, with gothic tracery windows, pillars, a ribbed vault of stone and richly decorated keystones (Plate 1.4). At the same time, they made an ogee-shaped sitting booth in the eastern part of the sanctuary’s southern wall. They also rebuilt the arch found at the junction of the nave and the sanctuary, which ends in a peak curve, its front being made up of ashlars. The rebuilding of the church’s nave took place during the beginning of the 16th century. The roof was removed and the walls were raised higher in order to be able to fit the large gothic windows. Traces of this elevation can clearly be seen today on the western gable. An entrance was opened on the southern side, fitted with a door frame and in that same spot the old Romanesque window was sealed up. The elevated ceiling of the church, unlike the sanctuary, was fitted with terracotta ribs (Plate 11.8), and seven pillars decorated with sculpted black andesitic ledges, were put in place in order to balance it. Their capitals were made of the same material. The earlier vestry from the northern part was demolished and a wider one was built and fitted with a stone frame entrance (Plate 2.3). Once the construction was finished the entire interior of the church was covered with stone slabs. The earlier cemetery wall was demolished and replaced with a new one with a deeper foundation. At that time the church was still covered with shingles. The 2012 excavations revealed that during the end of the 16th century the roof of the church was covered with tiles because, in the layer found directly above the gothic building level we found roof tile fragments. 9 Benkő 2012, 153. It was during this period that the chapel found on a hill to the east of the church was built, which was demolished following the Reformation. In 1665 only the name of the area indicated its existence: a place called ‘Chapel’, which is mentioned in the countryside near Ócfalva (Romanian: O(eni ).10 11 Following the Reformation, the village’s inhabitants converted to Calvinism, and as such, in concordance with the Calvinist puritan views, they covered the wall paintings with whitewash. They removed the altars and the icons and painted the entire church with whitewash. The church did not undergo any significant changes, not even during the Turkish invasion of 1661. Church archives from that period reveal that ceremony vestments from Catholic times were removed. In order to remedy this, numerous carpets and cloth donations occur during the following years. It is weird that there are no archival, or archaeological references attesting the burning of the church, when numerous other churches from Udvarhely County were destroyed", reports from later church visits indicate its restorations as rebuilding.12 The medieval church underwent major changes for the first time during the beginning of the 18th century (Plate 1.5). The church inspection in 1721 found both the church and the cemetery wall in a ruined state and the county judge was held responsible for this because he did not take any action.13 This time the ruined ceiling was removed first and replaced with a new coffered ceiling painted by Stephanus Fabritius and Daniel Philip, through the patronage of the Borsai and the Korda families. Part of the debris from the old ceiling was put in the south eastern corner of the cemetery. During the 2012 excavation numerous rib fragments were recovered from this debris layer. After this they probably also replaced the roof, covering it with tiles, some of which have the year 1746 marked on them. During the excavation we found layers of this renovation in spots which had not been cut across by later graves, even in areas further away from the church. The interior of the church was completely modified by the middle of the century according to the new style of the period. An organ loft standing on two pillars was built in 1746, in the eastern part of the former sanctuary, and a gilded 10 Liber Eccl. 1644, 129. 11 Forró 2003, 22-34. 12 EUET I, 445-446. 13 LiberEccl. 1715, 232.
