Prékopa Ágnes (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 31. (Budapest, 2017)

Szabolcs KONDOROSY: Types of Smoking Pipe Widespread in the Ottoman Empire in the 17th Century in Connection with Archaeological Finds from Onetime Várad Cathedral (Budapest Museum of Applied Arts)

SZABOLCS KONDOROSY

TYPES OF SMOKING PIPE WIDESPREAD IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE IN THE 17™ CENTURY IN CONNECTION WITH ARCHAEOLOGICAL FINDS FROM ONETIME VÁRAD CATHEDRAL (BUDAPEST MUSEUM OF APPLIED ARTS)

One of the most important strongholds of Hungary and the last fortress to come under Ottoman rule was the castle of Várad (Nagyvárad, now Oradea, Romania). It became part of the Hódoltság, the Ottoman- occupied region of the Hungarian Kingdom in 1660. The medieval St Ladislaus’ Cathedral, which had been erected in this episcopal see, and stood within the castle grounds, was destroyed in the same century, strangely enough a victim of Protestant rather than Ottoman advances. The intimidation of Catholics and expulsion of priests left the building defenceless, and Prince Gábor Bethlen had it demolished in 1618. Excavations of the cathedral started in 1883, led by Flóris Römer, one of the founding fathers of Hungarian archaeology as well as being a canon of Nagyvárad Cathedral at the time. He regarded the fragments of the old cathedral’s foundations and the discovery of broken gravestones of historic persons as the foremost outcomes of the excavations, but exceeding some of his contemporaries, he also carefully collected and recorded the other finds, including clay pipes. (Fig. 1) After Rómer’s death in 1887, the finds almost certainly came under the care of the Nagyvárad chapter, particularly the church historian Vince Bunyitay. Over the following years, Bunyitay had the pipes taken to the Budapest Museum of Applied Arts, with which he had connections in several other matters.1

1. a) Drawings of clay pipes from Várad by Flóris Römer (1883) and b) their equivalents,

c) A label from a pipe made by Römer

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