Horváth M. Ferenc (szerk.): Vác The heart of the Danube Bend. A historical guide for residents and globetrotters (Vác, 2009)
Tartalom
VÁC'S REMAINS FROM THE LATE MIDDLE AGES (1301-1 526) 75 tion just for a few decades decorating the castle and the cathedral; after that they belonged to a djami and a castle full of soldiers. What is more, after some time these two buildings were transformed along defensive lines. The Renaissance ornaments would have meant little to the Ottoman inhabitants of the castle.Their survival is due to the fact that in 1719, when the Franciscan order started to build its still existing church and monastery on the ruinous territory of the castle, the twenty-two column balustrade carved of stone and two carvings with coats of arms on top, was opened out. Some decades later, when the Classicist cathedral was constructed in its current location, these balusters were built into it. Sixteen of them can still be seen as part of the choir-rail. The choirrail consists of 20 columns - 10 on the right-hand side and 10 on the left. The fifth and the tenth ones on both sides were made of grey sandstone, while the original ones were carved of yellowish marl. The sandstone balusters are 18th-century replicas of the original ones, just like the top and the bottom slabs. The central parts of the balusters are shaped as rectangles with well-known motifs of the Renaissance style of the age, which look as if they were tied on a string hung on a button or a nail: round and pointed shields, fruits and pods of varied shapes like pears, lemons, carobs, acorns, hazelnuts. The stonecutters paid attention to reality: the leaves carved next to each fruit are true pictures of the leaves of the real plants. The columns were carved on both sides, so the motifs can be seen on the chancel side as well. We cannot find two columns that look alike: the artisans must have been ordered not to put two identical pieces into the same row.The other stone carvings were built into the walls of the crypt: the balusters got into the wall of the passage, while the armorial slabs were put into the crypt chapel. Although these objects were built into hidden corners of the church, their placement derived from a logical consideration.The balusters in the wall of the passage made the impression as if a railing was leading down to the sepulchre chapel, while the marble slabs were put near the tombs of the dignitaries of the diocese symbolizing continuity between the old and new bishops. The Renaissance carvings in the crypt were removed from the wall in 1982 to be taken to an exhibition about King Matthias Corvinus in Schallaburg, Austria. When the exhibition was finished they were taken to the Hungarian National Gallery in Budapest. The balusters are still deposited there, One of the stone carvings of the first cathedral: Archbishop Doymus of Spalato's epigraphic stone in the crypt from 1333 with the inscription 't MCCCXXXIII. D. DOYMUS ARCHI EPS SPALATENSIS FECIT FIERI' The stone balusters of the balustrade of the chancel
