A műemlékek sokszínűsége (A 28. Egri Nyári Egyetem előadásai 1998 Eger, 1998)

Előadások / Presentations - SEBESTYÉN József: Saxon and székely fortofoed churches in Transylvania

15th and 16th centuries, on the site of an old stone church. During the 18th century it was reconstructed, especially the interior. The fortifying wall, with its four round corner towers, surrounding the Baroqueexterior church, makes a fine spectacle. The records of an episcopal visitation in 1730 mention it as an unfinished enclosure. What is at first sight a capriciously laid-out defensive wall was unsuitable for defence against cannon fire. The wall's layout is suprisingly similar, however, to a drawing made by the Siena architect Francesco di Giorgio Martini at the end of the 15th century, which shows a round-bastion defensive system offered for the fortification of towns in hilly areas or at the foot of a hill. The same defensive structure is described in a treatise by another Siena architect, Peruzzi Baldassare. In this case, however, the differences in time and particularly in scale, exclude the possibility that this plan could have been chosen as a model. As András Kovács has suggested, the arrangement was probably chosen indirectly, under the influence of the drawing, by an educated son of the Székely community, or by a bibliophile patron. The fortifications built around the middle of the 17th century in Csík are representative of another type. Medieval churches with high western towers were surrounded by loopholed castle walls of completely irregular shapes, studded with low guard towers, and normally built to follow the features of the terrain. Such are those in Csíkrákos, Csíkszentgyörgy, Csíkszentmihály and Csíkszentmiidós. In 1796, two young aristocrats set out independently on tours of unknown regions of Transylvania. Still a student, Count László Festetich reported in his travel journal the Saxons' church fortifications, whereas the young {Széki) Count Domokos Teleki described some of the Székelys' church-forts. Then from the second half of the 19th century onwards, works of history, art history and cultural history by many eminent Hungarian, German, and since the middle of this century Romanian, researchers have included studies of these originally medieval buildings. While these books are there to be read by everybody, I hope that a comprehensive, comparative, analytical work covering Transylvania's church fortifications and church castles, and comparable monuments in other parts of the Carpathian basin, will be produced in the near future. But even if such an all-embracing review is not published, here I have perhaps given some impression of the subject's importance.