Majorossy Judit (szerk.): A Ferenczy Múzeum Évkönyve 2014 - Studia Comitatensia 33., Új Folyam 1. (Szentendre, 2014)
Szentendre. Adalékok a Pajor család, a Pajor-kúria és a Ferenczy-család történetéhez - Martos Gábor: Két talált kép „megtisztítása”. Ferenczy Valér ismeretlen nagybányai művei egy magyarországi magángyűjteményből
Studia Comitatensia 2014 - Yearbook of the Ferenczy Museum — New Series 1 - English Summaries László Ferenczi Molendium ad Aquas Calidas. The Cistercians in the Alleged Village of Fehéregyháza. Topographical and Landscape Archaeological Investigations on the Estate of the Pilis Abbey Mills are perhaps the best documented elements of monastic landscapes, as they tend to occur in a range of different sources (perambulations, court cases etc.). They were important sources of income regularly mentioned in estate records and were also represented on maps. Due to the immense efforts that were required to establish a mill, the sites usually remained in continuous use from their creation until modern times, thus they are often rather easy to be identified by landscape surveys. The paper discusses historical (medieval and post medieval) and archaeological data concerning an important mill site in the village of Megyer that belonged to the Cistercian Abbey of Pilis. The abbey, founded by Béla III in 1184, was among the most significant ones, but the estate of the monastery was less voluminous (surrounded by the royal forest and the lands of several other religious houses) than that of other Cistercian foundations in the medieval Hungarian Kingdom. This was compensated with donations of important privileges (toll revenues), and most probably very lucrative real estates (mostly vineyards) which were situated in the vicinity of nearby (or some further) towns, commercial centres and royal residences like Buda, Dömös, Visegrád, Dévény, and Pozsony. The site of the mill in Megyer (today Békásmegyer near Óbuda/Alt-Ofen) was received by the abbey perhaps as part of the original royal grant in 1184, but - since the abbey’s early records had perished - it is mentioned for the first time only by the confirmation of the original donation in 1254, as “tria molendina ad Aquas Calidas”. This reference has made certain scholars to believe that the abbey once had altogether three mills, not only in Megyer, but also in the nearby Pazandok, where thirteenth-century sources refer to the mill of the Premonstratensian house of the Nyulak szigete (Rabbits’ Island, today the Margaret Island in Budapest) as one that was situated next to the Cistercians’ mill. The concerning opinions are, however, contradictory, and a previously unknown charter, dating from 1383, clearly explains that the abbey had only one mill in Megyer that had three wheels. Fourteenth-century perambulations and eighteenth-century estate maps make it possible to identify the location of the given mill, which seems to have been in continuous use as documented by the tax records and estate records from the post medieval times. Interestingly, the excavations conducted around the mid-nineteenth century recovered the traces of a small chapel building in the immediate vicinity of the mill site that was then believed to be the site of Fehéregyháza, where allegedly the grave of Prince Árpád, the ancestor of the early medieval Hungarian royal (Arpadian) dynasty was buried. Although, this is entirely incorrect, the chapel and the mill might have been part of a manorial complex, which was seemingly situated at a distance (not very far) from the site of the village of Megyer. It remains, however, the task of future archaeological research to clarify the function and the dating of the building complex. Following the debate over the property of the mill site in 1383, the building remained in the hands of the Cistercians, but the mill does not seem to be mentioned later on. It is uncertain whether the Cistercians could keep it themselves, or it was leased out, as this was a usual practice throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It must have been an important source of income due to the favourable environmental conditions (such as the hot water springs), which - in addition to the significance of the local vineyards and market opportunities - explain why so many religious houses owned different kinds of properties in the surrounding area. 267
