Horváth M. Ferenc (szerk.): Vác The heart of the Danube Bend. A historical guide for residents and globetrotters (Vác, 2009)

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132 DISCOVERIES IN THE CRVPT OFTHE DOMINICAN CHURCH - THE “MUMMIES OF VÁC'

Discoveries in the crypt of the Dominican Church — the “mummies of Vác”

The group of findings known as the mummies of Vác is associated with the Dominican Church (commonly called the Church of the White Friars because of the colour of the habit worn by the Dominican monks; in the English language area they are called Black Friars) in the centre of the town. The reconstruction of this church was started in the first half of the 1990s. In the course of this work, the ventilator windows of the crypt hiding the corpses were discovered in the basement wall of the side chapel and the vestry, although plants covered them. Nobody

had known about any kind of basement edifice or the stairway leading down under the church before. The stairway was found in the autumn of 1994 near the steeple. Underground, there was a vaulted room with walls erected from coffins stacked high up. There were painted pictures and inscriptions with dates from the 1700s on the wooden coffins, some of which were covered with some adorned textile on their edges. There seemed to be a passage stretching towards the centre of the church, but it was not possible to get there because the