Haris Andrea szerk.: Koldulórendi építészet a középkori Magyarországon Tanulmányok (Művészettörténet - műemlékvédelem 7. Országos Műemlékvédelmi Hivatal,)

Lukács Zsuzsa: Előzetes beszámoló a Szeged-alsóvárosi ferences kolostor kutatásáról

the Romanesque building of St. Peter's Church was pulled down parallel with the construction of the choir base, at a time when the nave was already being used by the Franciscans (in 1989 this was still thought to take place after the church's consecration in 1503); then the demoliton continued during the construction of the tower and the chapter-house. (The main cornice of the church, which we did not disturb for inspection, is also assumed to be re-carved using the stones of St. Peter's Church.) On the basis of the monastery's depiction from 1713, we earlier thought that its eastern wing had been built on the place of St. Peter's Church. This was not confirmed by our observations regarding the actual construction work of the monastery, nor was it justified by the evidence of subsequent earthwork. Nevertheless, the church must have been standing nearby, otherwise the mouldings of the recessed doorway would not have been placed next to one another in the tower wall at a height of six metres, as a result of the straight delivery of the building material immediately after demolition. It probably stood south of the church, in the vicinity of the Régi Ispotály Street (Old Hospital Street)

. The tower and the chapter-house were built simultaneously, after the consecration of the church; the stones of their adjoining walls are in bond. The mediaeval windows of the tower were subsequently redesigned. On the east side of the tower, we uncovered the remains of a pointed arched Gothic door at ground level, built of bricks and later chamfered. According to the evidence of the survey made in 1713, the entrance of the chapter-house opened from the tower. (This was demolished at the time of building the Baroque entrance.) The lost tracery of the windows were reconstructed by Kálmán Lux in the early 1940s after Pál Molnár's survey. The Gothic altarpiece was located on the east side, between the windows; its foundation was excavated in 1943 by Károly Cs. Sebestyény. On each side of the altar we have found a Gothic niche with segmental arch. (Similarly, there were niches on the northern and southern sides.) The vault ribs in the chapter-house were made of ceramics. These were painted a warm vermilion colour during the first period; the webs were merely whitewashed. We began the survey of the monastery building in 1987-1988, initially on the west wing. We continued with the systematic excavation of the monastery right until 1990; then, keeping up with the intensive construction work carried out by the Franciscan Order (still going on in 1993), we tried to document and preserve the architecturally and art historically important findings by way of regular observations and collecting. The publication of the later research cannot form part of the present study, yet a brief reference to the more important connections discovered after the closing of the manuscript is appropriate. It turned out during the investigation of the west wing that here the main walls of the two-storey building, earlier believed to be Baroque, were in fact built in the Middle Ages. (Only the internal partition walls were pulled down during the construction work in the 18th century.) In most cases the Baroque windows and doors were not replacing the mediaeval ones, and therefore the first-floor windows on the western facade were preserved — some intact, some damaged - in the form known from the engraving made in 1713. After studying the west and the east facade we came to the conclusion that the windows on the first floor formed a peculiar system: smaller (40 centimetres high) and larger (70 centimetres high) windows alternated regularly. The smaller windows were placed higher than the larger ones. (The windows were made using bricks. Their