Budapest Régiségei 35/2. (2002)

KÖZLEMÉNYEK - Végh András: Anjou-kori kályhacsempe lelet a budai Szentpétermártír külvárosból 617-632

VÉGH ANDRÁS MEDIAEVAL OVEN TILES FROM THE SUBURB SZENTPETERMARTIR OF BUDA A two-month salvage work was done under extremely bad conditions in winter in 1994 parallel with the construction work of QB. The enormous building site was taking a crucial part of the mediaeval suburb Szentpétermártir right opposite the mediaeval parish church. A full controlled excavation would have contributed much to the general knowledge of Szentpétermártír. However, the given circumstances offered very limited observations. 8 and 10 Medve Street had the most interesting findings. These plots were separated from one another only in modern age, in a register from 1695 they had been one piece of ground. At the inner part of the plot thick walls of a three-part stone house were found. The house had been built parallel with Medve Street and it used to cover the full width of the plot. The walls were built of random coarsed limestone and at the deep foundation level they were one meter wide. Consequently the building must have had several floors. There was no cellar to the house. The entrance could have been facing the street, though it was not found, because the wall here had undergone several reconstructions. Part of this building had been used up to our times, when the modern building was pulled apart. Unfortunately the original function could not been established. Neither was it possible to define which part of the mediaeval plot was occupied by the house. If its short side was facing the market square in front of the church the mediaeval plot division must have been different from that of modern times. If the modern plot matches the mediaeval one the building took place at the back of it. No answer could have been found because the contexts and archaeologically important objects were destroyed by the constructeurs without letting archaeological observation be done. It can only be concluded from other historical examples that the two plot divisions match each other. The register from 1695 also mentions wall fragments on the neighbouring plots 2, 4, and 6 Medve Street. Thus there was no open space in front of the parish church. About 13 meters from the eastern facade of the above mentioned building a pit with special deposit was found. The pit was round and contained the remains of an oven destructed during the reign of king Sigismund. Most of the oven tiles used to belong to the same oven. All of the patterns of these tiles represent a new type. As it can be concluded from the coats of arms on them they were all made between 1370 and 1382, under the reign of King Louis the Great. The following patterns can be seen on the oven-tiles from Angevin times: Hungarian royal coat of arms of the Angevin period, Polish royal coat of arms of the Angevin period, coat of arms with a two-head eagle, coat of arms with the Hungarian double cross, together with a coat of arms with two crossed keys, the attribute of St Peter, a crest with the head of a Saracen, lion fighting with a dragon, initials. This find has raised the question, whose could this plot have been on which there used to stand such a significant house, and in the yard of which such a unique oven used to be thrown out - an oven that is only known from royal centers or from magantes' or prelates' palaces or from rich abbeys. As royal ownership can be excluded the plot could have belonged to someone from the aristocracy however the lack of sufficient historical sources make it impossible to go further with this problem and name the owners. 624