Mentényi Klára szerk.: Műemlékvédelmi Szemle 2003/1. szám Az Országos Műemléki Felügyelőség tájékoztatója (Budapest, 2003)
TANULMÁNY - Koppány Tibor: Zalaszántó középkori temploma
In the first half of the 14 th century, in an exactly unknown date the church was enlarged for the purposes of the larger number of population, its nave was doubled in the west. By this time it had several, often arbitrary owners, till it got finally to royal ownership together with the castle. At the beginning of the next century the castle and the villages belonging to it - among them Szántó - were given as a royal donation to the Gersei Pethő family, one of the leading aristocratic families. In 1441 the new owner was given a papal indulgence permission for the Holy Virgin chapel built by the family to the north side of the church. On the north side of the present church were found its walls, rib fragments of its vaults and pieces of the entrance gate frame. The chapel must have been built as a family vault as from the 15 th century on Szántó was the centre of the domain consisting of several villages belonging to the castle of Tátika, where the Pethő family had a mansion. In the last decades of the 15 lh century the church was enlarged and rebuilt again. The 13th century apse was pulled down and a new polygonal gothic buttressed apse was built, while to the western end of the remaining nave a heavy tower was raised. Presmably the same time a chapel was built on the southern side covered with net vaulting similarly to that of the new apse. To this late gothic building period the vaults of which were later destroyed belong the carved stone windows of the apse, the small size columns remaining in the corners and the northern wall's ogival arched pastophorium. The southern side chapel itself, which used to be a family burial place was destroyed similarly to that of the northern, only the basement walls have remained. On the basis of the fragment of its late gothic gate and the ribs of the vault the chapel must have - similarly to the apse - had an elegant looking interior. The last medieval building of the church took place in the first decades of the 16 lh century. Pulling down the apse of the earliest chapel a sacristy was built on its place, in front of the still existing 13 th century southern gate a porch was built. Both had a renaissance framework, the one belonging to the sacristy is still existing. The Ottoman rule reached the church in the 1540's at that time having already occupied one third of the country. From this time on the sudden attacks of Ottoman horsemen were ruining the region. The population of the village fled several times, their houses and the church were burnt down. The inhabitants always settled back and paid tax for the sake of peace to the Ottomsnd from the second half of the century on, the church of the village was however destroyed. Its rebuilding took place much after the end of the Ottoman rule in the late 17 th century. The former Pethő estates were bought by the Festetich family getting rich at the beginning of the 18 th century. Szántó was belonging to their new estate with the centre of Keszthely, where it was frebuilt in baroque style in 1736. Its present look is made richer by the medieval details found between 1957 and 1960.
