Bárkányi Ildikó - Lajkó Orsolya, F. (szerk.): A Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve 2018. Új folyam 5. (Szeged, 2018)

Történettudomány - Máté Zsolt: A szegedi Szent György-templom és a Tornyos Iskola

Máté Zsolt

A szegedi Szent György-templom és a Tornyos Iskola

The Saint George church and the Towered School of Szeged

Zsolt Máté

There is very little knowledge about the medieval Saint George church of Uptown of Szeged. Its successor building the Towered School is even more barely treatised. The first mention of the church dates back to 1332-37. The Romanesque origin is supposed only. But design or description is not known before the Siege Maps designed against the Turkish conquerors in 1686. Those maps refer to a gothic ground plan type of three naves having then two naves and one tower only. After the Turks the church was in ruins without roof. In the first part of the 18th century the ruins and tower were included into a provisional church of about 17x17 meters. This temporary church was abandoned after 1767. The remnant part was completed with a new extension of about the same size at its eastern side. It resulted the so called Towered School. In the events this school with the included medieval tower was demolished in 1905. In its place was erected the new school of our days.

In 1938 an ideal ground floor reconstruction was compiled. The present study linked the maps of 1686,1776,1841, 2004 and one of the excavation in 1981 with the help of geo-reference and identified the contours of the church. The

remains of the church lie under the school of Szent György square. In 1981 the foundation of one of its pillars was explored in the course of a rescue excavation. The author of this study added corrections to the reconstructive study of 1938 in the respect of the counter-pillars, determined the supposed original measures, and proofed the issues of the excavation in 1981.

Analyzing the style of the elevations of the Towered School it was able to state that this successor building held no visible traces of the Middle Ages. The whole composition was one of the 18. century character. At most the tower can be suspected for having reserved any remains of the medieval Saint George church, but it was demolished without any detailed investigation. Further knowledge can be hoped from a future excavation only.

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