Heves megyei aprónyomtatványok 19/H

Xll-th century church were covered with paintings and the floor was covered with marble-mosaic. According to the chronicles King Imre was buried here in 1204.

The beautiful building was destroyed for the first time during the invasion of the Mongols in 1241. About the year 1248 it was rebuilt by the Bishop Lambert, in Gothic style. The further extension in Gothic style of the church was made on the initiative of the Bishop Miklós II. (Dörögdi). The enlargening was made behind the Romanesque sanctuary in an eastward direction and two enormous towers were raised in front of the western facade of the nave. Sometime later the church was enlargened at the southern facade with two side-chapels. In the XV-th century — the golden age of the cathedral — a big building operation was placed in course. Had the planned cathedral in late Gothic style, with a nave and two aisles, with a sanctuary preambulatory, with a cornice of chapels been finished, it might have been the largest cathedral in Hungary. The vast constructions, the extension of the churches symbolized the economic and politic power of the bishopric.

A great fire in 1506 destroyed the already finished parts. After the battle of Mohács in 1526 the grave situation that followed made it impossible for the construction activities to be continued and the state of the church gradually became worse and worse. The final destruction began in 1542, when the Gothic stones were carried off for fortification work and the sanctuary was transformed into a bastion. During the siege of 1552 the gun-powder stored in the sacristy blew up and ruined a great part of the building. After this, even in the time of the Turkish, rule, it was used as an arsenal.

In the XVIII-th century it came to a demolition of the remains of the church, in the course of which even the remaining parts of it were covered with debris.

The uncovering of the ruins of this cathedral consecrated to St. John the Evangelist, was first undertaken in 1860 and then between the years 1920—30, a fact which made it possible to present the ruins to the public.

A statue of King Stephan I., by Marco Casagrande, has been placed on the territory of the ruins.

Kiadja: a Dobó István Vármúzeum közművelődési osztálya

Szerkeszti: Dr. Füköh Levente Borítóterv: Csintalan András

F. k.: Dr. Bodó Sándor Révai, Eger.

F. v.: Horváth Józsefné dr. 84 771 50000