A Herman Ottó Múzeum évkönyve 47. (2008)

Juan Cabello-László Csaba-Simon Zoltán: A háromhegyi Boldogságos Szűz Mária pálos kolostor régészeti kutatása

THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE PAULINE MONASTERY DEDICATED TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY OF HÁROMHEGY The still impressive remains of a monastery and church lie on the outskirts of the village of Martonyi, in the Aggtelek karstland lying in the northern part of County Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén. The Pauline cloister was known as the Háromhegy cloister during the Middle Ages. Probably built in the early 14th century, the cloister was founded by the descendants of Tekus (or Tekes), ispán of County Sáros, who appears in charters dating from between 1244 and 1261. The first mention of the monks of the monastery dates from 1341. The monastery is barely mentioned in the written sources: the few surviving charters mention the donations made by the lesser nobles living in the area and describe the affairs concerning the estates of the hermits. More substantial donors, such as Imre Himfi, Mihály Hangácsi and György Derencsényi, appear in the late 15th and early 16th century only; they were the familiäres of the Szapolyai family, which had large estates in this area too. The monastery was abandoned sometime in the mid-16th century. We know that it was no longer in use in 1569. The monastery was excavated between 1998 and 2005. The church interior and the church's immediate surroundings were investigated, together with the ambulatory, the quadrum and the sacristy, after the rubble was cleared from these areas. Adjoining the rectangular nave of the church was a polygonal sanctuary. The monastery built on the church's northern side had two wings, one on the eastern, the other on the northern side. The entrance leading into the nave, buttressed by pillars on the southern side, lay on the western side and probably had a rose window above it. The ambulatory could also be entered through a door in the nave's northern side. Nothing has survived of the stone frame of these doors and entrances. The surviving stone carvings (base fragments, impost elements, smaller splayed fragments) suggest that the mouldings were very simple. Fragments of the tracery of one of the two lancet windows on the southern side have survived. The nave was covered with a two-part vaulting, of which a high number of trapezoidal ribs were found among the rubble. The vaulting sprang from cylindrical wall pillars. Curiously enough, the gable above the nave has survived almost undamaged, enabling a reconstruction of the roofing. The nave had a flooring of mortar. Three side-chapels could be identified. The walls of the sanctuary, buttressed with pillars and adjoining the nave with an ogival arch, were in a poor state of preservation. Only the northern wall stands to some height, together with the door leading to the sacristy, which was stripped of its stone frame. The vaulting springing from the sanctuary's stringcourse has ribs with pear shaped mouldings. Several ribs and copestones were found in this area. A looted grave was uncovered beside the southern wall of the sanctuary. Little is known about the monastery building. The ambulatory had a beam roofing; the door leading to the quadrum did not have a stone frame. A simple lavabo came to light in the eastern wall of the sacristy. The sanctuary's northern wall was built against the southern wall of an earlier building, which was then dismantled. The earlier building had incorporated the sacristy and the chapter hall (and its sanctuary) adjoining it to the north. This would confirm the information contained in the written sources that the church and its three altars were only consecrated in 1411. It would appear that after their arrival, the monks first built the chapter house with the polygonal sanctuary and the sacristy adjoining it to the south, while the church and the monastery itself was only completed in 1411. The monks probably lived in temporary dwellings until then and used the chapter hall for mass. Juan Cabello-Csaba László-Zoltán Simon