Tari Edit: Pest megye középkori templomai (Studia Comitatensia 27. Szentendre, 2000.)
Árpádian Age is the one at the St. István church of Nagybörzsöny which is one of the most beautiful rural churches of Hungary. Ground plan types The types of ground plans have been separated on the basis of the shape of the chancel, except for churches with central or four-cell plan in the case of which the ground plan of the nave must be taken into account. In cases when the later rebuilding of the church changed the shape of the chancel I took into statistic calculation both forms. I am not listing here all the sites with churches because of the limited extension of this work. The ground plan of all the excavated or researched churches can be found among the illustrations. Churches of central plan - 12 cases. This form of ground plan makes an exception from the liturgical spaces shown above. In this case the semi-circular or rectangular (straight) chancel is attached to the central form of nave. One of the earliest rotundas is the one from Dunakeszi-Alagi major, it can be dated to the 11 th century and was rebuilt in the 15 th century. Churches of central plan mentioned in the literature can be suggested at further 5 sites. Churches with semicircular chancel - 49 cases. These chancels usually were covered by a semi-dome vaulting and joined the nave by a semicircular arch. A special type is represented by churches built in the middle of the 13 th century, the apse of which is wide and long comparing to the nave. Churches with horse-shoe shaped chancel - 3 cases. The shape of the chancel is well illustrated by its name. The ground plan form of the chancel may possibly come from the marking out with stakes and rope. We know only a few of them from our county. Researchers suggest that this ground plan form is an early one. Its roof could be similar to the churches with semicircular chancel. In its exterior it did not differ from these ones. Churches with rectangular chancel - 27 cases. Judging from the results of excavations there were frequent cases of earlier semicircular chancels. The roof of the chancel was usually solved by a barrel vault. It can be observed that at the two corners of the rectangular chancel buttresses were used in late Romanesque churches. Churches with polygonal chancel - 42 cases. Polygonal chancel shape appeared from the 14 th century. It marks the start of an absolutely new architectural style Gothic. That means that the polygonal apse was represented by three sides of an octagonal. The roof of the chancel was frequently a groined cross vault. Usually we can observe the traces of the enlargement of an earlier Romanesque church's chancel according to the new style. Sometimes the nave was also enlarged. In Nyársapát for example the enlargement was solved so that the whole space of the old church with semicircular chancel became the space of the new chancel and from the west a new building part was attached. From the data cited above we can see that among the known ground plans, churches with semicircular chancels dominate. According to an old but very questionable idea, the shape of the chancel must be taken into consideration when dating the church. According to it, the semicircular shape is earlier, and the rectangular one is later. Many researchers allow even a more concrete dating, considering semicircular chancels to be 250
