Horváth M. Ferenc (szerk.): Vác The heart of the Danube Bend. A historical guide for residents and globetrotters (Vác, 2009)
Tartalom
SIGHTSEEING 187 The educational path on the flood plain One of the mementos of the Battle of April 1849: a cannon ball in a corner of the church In the mid-1880s, on a prebend's motion, the floodplain lying between the shrine in the Grove and the willows along the river was planted with trees, and footpaths were formed as well. First it was called Csávolszky Park named after the prebend, but later the name was changed to Erzsébet Grove after the group of trees that had been planted in memory of Emperor Francis Joseph I's wife, the murdered Queen Elizabeth. The lake in the Grove was used for boating and skating, with changing rooms on the shore. There was a lively restaurant too; in summer evenings a band played on the terrace. Nowadays the lake is used by anglers. A cycle route runs past the Grove. There is also a botanical-zoological model path for educational purposes displaying the remains of the floodplain woods that used to cover the area along the riverbank. Since the nicest parts of the path are often under water, there is a 510-m-long wooden construction on legs leading inside. According to popular belief, two springs in the Grove have had healing powers for centuries. Chronicles from the times preceding the Ottoman occupation mention a "holy spring named after the stag" mentioned in the legends, or the shrine of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Maria de Cervo) named afterthe stag.This holy place was not forgotten even during the Ottoman occupation and the ensuing religious turbulences. Around 1700 a joiner, who was fatally ill, influenced by a dream, put a picture of the holy statue in the church in Máriavölgy (a place of pilgrimage near Pozsony/Bratislava) above one of the springs and made a shelter out of twigs to protect it. At the news of his recovery more and more people visited the “picture of the spring" or the 'Blessed Mary of the spring". As a result, in the 1710s a church was built there with the picture placed on the high altar. Later the popular church was enlarged several times. It was consecrated in its present Zopf style in 1780. At the time of the Battle of April 1849 a cannon ball lodged into the wall, high up on the right hand side of the the nave. It is still there. The engraving depicting “the Blessed Mary of the Well" Church in the second half of the 19th century Seven Chapels Church Picture columns by the road to church
