Review of Marta Graczynśka's Architecture and Power in Early Central Europe

 

An interesting book was published about architecture in East-Central Europe in the 10th-11th centuries. Written by Marta Graczynśka, the book was published by ARC  Humanities Press in 2022. The monograph provides an overview of royal architecture of the Early Middle Ages in East Central Europe, with a special focus on the Kingdoms of Bohemia, Poland, and Hungary. 

My review of the book was published in volume 100 of Speculum. A Journal of Medieval Studies, published by the Medieval Academy of America. You can read the review on the journal's website, but I also uploaded it below. 

Citation: Zsombor Jékely: Review of Marta Graczyńska, Architecture and Power in Early Central Europe, trans. Joanna Sobczak. (Beyond Medieval Europe.) Leeds: ARC Humanities, 2022. Speculum. A Journal of Medieval Studies, 100/4 (2025), 1162-1164. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/737885

Master MS at the Museum of Fine Arts

One of the most important exhibitions of the summer was dedicated to the late Gothic painter known as Master MS, held at the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. At the heart of the monographic exhibition was Master MS’s most famous work: the former high altarpiece of Saint Catherine’s Church in Selmecbánya (now Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia), dated to 1506. The seven surviving panel paintings of this monumental masterpiece of late medieval art have never been brought together in a single exhibition before. I wrote a brief review of the exhibition, which was published in the September 2025 issue of Hungarian Review. You can read it on the journal's website, but I am also including it here on the blog.

 

On June 20, 2025, members of the International Center of Medieval Art and other medieval art historians gathered for a tour of the exhibition dedicated to Master MS and his age at the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. You can read about this event in ICMA News (Summer 2025).

The cover of ICMA News and Hungarian Review, both featuring Master MS

Citation: Zsombor Jékely: New Attributions in the Art of Master MS. Hungarian Review, Vol. 16/3 (2025), 117-125.

Sensational finds at the Franciscan Church of Visegrád

Marble console from the Franciscan Church of Visegrád

Archaeological excavations carried out in 2024 have brought to light the remains of the former Franciscan church at Visegrád. In 1425, the site of the former chapel of Saint George was given to the Observant Franciscans by King Sigismund - the newly established monastery was located right next to the royal palace in the lower town of Visegrád. The site of the monastery buildings had already been excavated during the 1980s-1990s. It was well-known from those excavations, that the original monastery was rebuilt in the late Gothic period, starting with a formal reestablishment of the institution by King Matthias in 1473. There was no chance until now to excavate the site of the church itself, which is located just south of the monastery quadrant. The church's location was known precisely, as the southwestern corner of the sanctuary had already been found at the earlier excavations. As the monastery of the Observant Franciscans was founded by the king and was part of the palace complex, there was no doubt that the church had to be a building worthy of a royal residence.

Excavations, led by Gergely Buzás, have brought to light the church, which consisted of a five-bay long single nave and a somewhat narrower sanctuary terminating in three sides of an octagon. Below the sanctuary, a crypt was discovered - this is where most of the ribs of the former sanctuary vault were found. Among the rubble, three mutilated skeletons and fragments of white marble carvings were found. Along with smaller fragments, the archaeologists pulled out two Renaissance consoles, decorated with cherub heads. The slightly damaged white marble carvings display exceptional quality, indicating that a leading master of the Florentine Quattrocento must have carved them. Francesco Caglioti identified the master with Benedetto da Maiano. It is well-known that Benedetto had spent some time at the Hungarian court, documented by his Vita written by Giorgio Vasari and some documents relating to payments. Vasari claims that after his failure as a woodworker (his intarsia pieces fell apart as he presented them to the king), Benedetto dedicated himself to the art of carving in marble. Not so long ago, Paolo Pamiggiani also attributed the famous double portrait of King Matthias and his wife Beatrice of Aragon to Benedetto da Maiano. 

Benedetto da Maiano: Queen Beatrice and King Matthias. Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

Consoles with cherub heads, encircled by wings appear on several works of Benedetto da Maiano, such as the eucharistic ciborium at the Collegiata of San Gimignano or on his smaller tabernacle at Santa Barnaba in Firenze, and on the Strozzi tomb in Santa Maria Novella. At Visegrád, two such consoles were found, so a more elaborate structure, perhaps an altarpiece was made by Benedetto in the 1480s. Fragments of an adoring angel - possibly similar to those seen on the Strozzi tomb - were also found, indicating a larger sculptural ensemble.

Carvings attributed to Benedetto da Maiano from the Franciscan Church of Visegrád

It is not at all certain that Benedetto da Maiano's altar was erected in the church during King Matthias's lifetime, as the choir and sanctuary vaults were only completed during the reign of the next ruler, Wladislas II. The building received an elaborate Late Gothic net vault, which could be reconstructed from the large number of rib fragments found. Late Gothic was quite popular at the time of King Matthias and his Jagiellonian successors - in churches, usually only some elements of internal furnishings, namely tabernacles, and altarpieces were made in Renaissance style. This was the case for example at the Inner City parish church of Pest (now Budapest), where a Renaissance white marble altar and two red marble tabernacles were installed in the early 16th century. The Franciscan church at Visegrád was built as a Gothic church and thus had to be finished with a Gothic vault. The theoretical reconstruction of the vault was carried out by Balázs Szőke. 

Gothic ribs and the mason mark of Anton Pilgram

The net vault had a particular feature: its ribs were designed with double curves, a feature that became common in Central Europe particularly thanks to Benedikt Ried, court architect of Wladislas II (the prime example being the Great Hall of Prague Castle). At Visegrád, the finds point to another noted master mason of the period: Anton Pilgram. His characteristic mason sign was found on three of the ribs excavated from the Franciscan church. Anton Pilgram originated from Brno (Brünn) and later became the master mason of St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna between 1511-1515. His most famous works are preserved there: the pulpit of the cathedral and the organ gallery, both with a portrait of the Master. It should be pointed out that Anton Pilgram was primarily an architect and master mason, he did not work as a sculptor, so these works should not be considered self-portraits (see the discussion on Pilgram by Gábor Endrődi). The activity of Anton Pilgram in the Kingdom of Hungary can also be traced in Besztercebánya (Banská Bystrica, Neusohl). Here he likely supplied plans for the new vaults of the Church of Our Lady along with the vaults of some chapels and the sacristy on the north side of the church. This construction took place around 1500. His insignia also appears on the vault of the church of Zólyomszászfalu (Sásová, Sachsendorft), just outside of Besztercebánya. The vault that he likely designed for Visegrád presents a novel solution: in addition to a regular net vault, he added ribs forming semicircles, creating flower-like shapes. The design for this vault survives in the plan archive of the Vienna building lodge in several copies - until now it was not known to what building these plans belong to.

Theoretical reconstruction of the vault of the Franciscan Church of Visegrád, created by Balázs Szőke

The supposition is that the design and construction of the Franciscan Church of Visegrád took place in the 1490s, before Master Anton returned to his native Brno in 1500. We are not sure when construction was finished, but in 1513, the general assembly of the Observant Franciscans was already held at the church. By this time the Renaissance white marble carvings of Benedetto da Maiano must have been installed under the late Gothic vaults designed by Anton Pilgram. This duality of styles - and the desire to seek out the best artists of their generation - characterized the last decades of medieval Hungary, just before the catastrophic battle of Mohács in 1526. Although 1526 did not mean the end of the Franciscan monastery at Visegrád, the church was ravaged by the Ottoman troops at that time. Visegrád was later sieged by King Ferdinand in 1540, after the death of his opponent, King John of Szapolyai. This internal conflict was eventually resolved by Suleiman the Magnificent and his Ottoman troops, who occupied Buda in 1541. The Kingdom of Hungary was divided into three parts, and the Turks eventually occupied Visegrád in 1544. After this, the Franciscan church and monastery fell into ruin along with the adjacent royal palace, and their stones were later used for construction in the village. Almost nothing remained on the site until the period of 20th-century archaeological excavations. The history of medieval art in Hungary has to be reconstructed from the fragments this research has brought to life.

The excavations have already generated a lot of publicity. You can follow the developments in the Archheologia Altum Castrum online magazine of the King Matthias Museum, or have a look at this detailed article by András Zsuppán on Válasz Online (in Hungarian). You can also look at these two videos for a better idea of the importance of the finds. 

All photos courtesy of the HNM King Matthias Museum, Visegrád

Review of Imre Takács' book on The Arrival of French Gothic in Hungary

Imre Takács: The Arrival of French Gothic in Hungary. Bibliotheca Collegii Professorum Hungarorum. Piliscsaba: Makovecz Campus Alapítvány, 2024. 

ISBN: 9786150202501

Imre Takács's important book about the arrival of French Gothic art in the Kingdom of Hungary has recently been published in an English translation. The book is key to understanding the early reception of the new gothic forms in a far-away Kingdom of medieval Europe. It is well-known that Hungary was among the first places to embrace the new style, but the circumstances and the exact nature of the 'French connection' have been imperfectly understood. Takács provides not only an overview of these questions but numerous new observations and explanations. In historiography, a key role was accorded to the travel of Villard de Honnecourt.  A 13th-century French-language codex in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris preserved the architectural and other drawings of Villard de Honnecourt, and this work has long fascinated scholars of the Gothic period (BNF Fr 19093). In the codex, Villard wrote the following next to a drawing of the traceried window of the cathedral in Reims: "I was sent to Hungary when I drew this, because it pleased me most" (fol. 10v). Additional passages also refer to his Hungarian trip.

This later inscription in the sketchbook of Villard states:
"de Honnecor[t], who had been in Hungary" (BNF)

Imre Henszlmann, one of the pioneering Hungarian researchers of Gothic architecture, was among the first to recognize the significance of entries in the then-unpublished (but already known) codex. Like his contemporaries, he started out believing that Gothic was a German style. In 1846, he authored the first Hungarian monograph on medieval architecture, titled The Old German-Style Churches of Kassa (now Košice). During his study trip to England and France in the years following the War of Independence of 1848-49, Henszlmann became acquainted with French Gothic architecture and noted Villard de Honnecourt's sketchbook. In 1857, he presented his theory in Paris, proposing that Villard had designed none other than the Church of St. Elizabeth in Kassa (Košice) around 1270, during the reign of King Stephen V. While Henszlmann acknowledged that the cathedral in Kassa was ultimately built in a 'German' style, he argued that its foundational plan was distinctly French. This marked the beginning of scholarly investigations into the connections between French Gothic centers and Hungary. Though Henszlmann and subsequent scholars were incorrect about Villard de Honnecourt's role in Hungary, the question continued to resurface over time. A deeper understanding of the emergence of French Gothic in Hungary only became possible after significant archaeological excavations in the 20th century—most notably at the Castle Hill in Esztergom during the 1930s and at the Cistercian Abbey of Pilis in the 1970s. These excavations uncovered key monuments that shed new light on the spread of Gothic architecture in Hungary.

Esztergom, Chapel of the Royal Palace, 1180s

Ernő Marosi was the first to comprehensively analyze the origins of Hungarian Gothic architecture in his influential 1984 monograph, Die Anfänge der Gotik in Ungarn. The work focuses on the late 12th-century buildings of Esztergom and highlights the palace chapel there as perhaps the earliest example of the reception of northern French Gothic architectural innovations east of the Rhine. Marosi's insights served as the foundation for Imre Takács' subsequent research, and it is fitting that Takács dedicated his own work to his late professor, who passed away in 2021. Takács' scholarship represents the culmination of decades of research. It began in the 1990s when, as a curator of the Hungarian National Gallery, he reconstructed the tomb of Queen Gertrude—discovered at Pilis Abbey—using fragments excavated by László Gerevich and preserved in the Gallery. Takács then extended his efforts to a detailed study of the complete carved material from Pilis Abbey and the stone collection of the Castle Museum in Esztergom. Among the fragments in Esztergom, the Porta Speciosa, the former western gate of the cathedral, became a particular focus of his research, leading to his recent publication on the subject. The third major site of Takács' research was Pannonhalma Abbey, where he played a key role as the main organizer of the exhibition celebrating the abbey's 1000th anniversary. He also served as the editor of the comprehensive three-volume catalog published for the occasion in 1996.

Esztergom, Deesis-tympanum, originally on the inside of the Porta Speciosa of the Cathedral

These three sites also feature prominently in the new monograph, The Arrival of French Gothic in Hungary, published this year. The English-language volume is a translation of Imre Takács' 2018 monograph in Hungarian, which came out with the title The Reception of French Gothic in Hungary in the Age of Andrew II. The slightly broader English title is justified by the fact that the buildings of Esztergom in the time of Béla III also play a major role in the volume. At the heart of the monograph is the recognition that in some of the central sites of the Kingdom of Hungary, the structural and formal solutions of French Gothic art appeared much earlier than in other countries of Europe. Imre Takács shows that this is true not only for the time of Béla III and the early Gothic period but also for the time of King Andrew II and the Classical Gothic period, which was fashionable at the time. In addition to Esztergom, Pilis, and Pannonhalma, several important buildings of the early 13th century are mentioned in the text: the cathedral of Kalocsa, the Premonstratensian abbey church of Ócsa, the Cistercian abbey of Topuszkó, etc. Along with goldsmith works, the monograph discusses all the most important surviving evidence of courtly art of the period.

The detailed discussion of the topic begins with the art of the time of Béla III, primarily with the study of the early Gothic elements of the royal palace and the cathedral of Esztergom. It is here that the use of the red marble from the Gerecse hills, which played a major role in the Gothic period, first appeared in Hungary. Takács describes in detail the most important monuments, especially the Porta Speciosa, the main gate of the cathedral, decorated with colored marble decoration. This monument, dating from the end of the 12th century, is contemporary with the first Gothic monuments built in Esztergom, above all the palace chapel. Takács dates this building campaign to the second half of the 1180s and links the appearance of the 'French connection' to the arrival of Queen Margaret of Capet in Hungary in 1186. This construction coincided with the building of the Cistercian priory of Pilis, founded by Béla III in 1184, which is the subject of Takács's next chapter. Construction there lasted until the first decade of the 13th century, after which the French-educated masons who worked there were employed on two important buildings of the period of Andrew II: the new building of the cathedral of Kalocsa, begun around 1210 by Archbishop Bertold of Andechs-Meran, and the Premonstratensian church of Ócsa, built a little earlier (but never fully completed). This chapter describes in detail how Gothic forms spread throughout the Kingdom of Hungary in the decades before the Mongol invasion of 1241, with the cloisters of the royal residence in Óbuda, the abbey of Somogyvár, and Szermonostor as the most important additional examples.

Pannonhalma, abbey church, vaulting of the nave

The fourth part of the volume deals with the most remarkable phenomena from an international point of view: when the French Classical Gothic forms, which were considered modern in their home country, appeared in Hungary in the 1220s. In this respect, Hungary is no longer as unique as it was at the time of the reception of early Gothic in the late 12th century, since the stone carvers and sculptors who set out from the cathedral lodges of the great French cathedrals appeared in several parts of the Holy Roman Empire, such as in Strassburg or Bamberg, as well as in Klosterneuburg near Vienna. In Hungary, one of the key monuments of this phase is the completion of the Benedictine abbey church in Pannonhalma, especially the upper parts of the southern nave wall completed for the consecration in 1224, and the construction of the Porta Speciosa, which is incorporated into this wall. Imre Takács provides detailed evidence of the direct Reims origin of the carvings found here. The conclusions concerning the presence of Reims stone carvers in Hungary before 1224 are of great importance: the date of the consecration in Pannonhalma also allows the rather uncertain chronology of the Reims cathedral at that time to be clarified. 

Detail of the Porta Speciosa at Pannonhalma

In the next section, Takács describes in detail the most important sculptural monument of the period, the fragments of the tomb of Queen Gertrude, who was murdered in 1213. He also shows that the sculptor of these carvings came to the Kingdom of Hungary from the building lodge working on the cathedral in Reims. In this context, the fact that Villard de Honnecourt, who compiled the best-known collection of architectural drawings of the period, also left for Hungary from Reims, around 1220 according to most scholars, is particularly noteworthy. Political connections also explain the links: in particular the family circle of Yolande Courtenay, second wife of Andrew II. A red marble tomb slab with engraved decoration, also found in the abbey church of Pilis, is linked to a member of this family. The style of the tomb is exactly the same as the drawings in Villard de Honnecourt's sketchbook. The final part of the book studies objects of the minor arts, mainly in the field of goldsmith works, which have also occupied the author since the beginning of his career: the seals of the Árpád monarchs, and the analysis of a special 13th-century technique of luxury goldsmith decoration, the so-called opus duplex. 

Fragment of a seated figure from the sarcophagus of Queen Gertrude, 
originally from Pilis Abbey (Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest)

All these observations highlight the direct link that existed between the Hungarian royal court and the contemporary centers of French Gothic. The monuments that are given shorter passages in the text, sometimes with only one or two carvings representing French Gothic forms, indicate that the most modern architectural forms were widespread in Hungary in the pre-Mongol period. As we have seen, the question is of great importance not only for the spread of Gothic art in Central Europe but also for a more accurate chronology of French monuments. We can only hope that some of the archaeological research currently underway, especially the excavation of the Cistercian monastery at Egres, which served as the burial site of Andrew II and his wife Yolande, may add further finds to the picture of French art of the period painted by Imre Takács. 

Golden seal of King Andrew II

At this point, it is worth highlighting the research topics of Imre Takács, who has been teaching at the Institute of Art History at ELTE since 2016. In addition to the subjects explored in this volume, which have accompanied his academic career, two additional areas of his research deserve special mention. First, he has extensively studied the history of the construction and carvings of the Gyulafehérvár Cathedral, the only surviving Árpád-era cathedral. Second, he has focused on Hungarian royal monuments, particularly artworks associated with King Sigismund. Takács has written on these topics in The Art of Medieval Hungary, a book co-edited by him and published in English in Rome in 2018. The Rome volume aimed to make the lesser-known material on medieval Hungarian art accessible to the international scholarly community in a clear and structured handbook. It includes a summary of the first century of Hungarian Gothic art, which briefly introduces many of the research findings elaborated in detail in the current monograph. Finally, these findings are presented here in detail and in English. Just as Ernő Marosi's book marked a pivotal moment in the international recognition of Hungarian Gothic art, the publication of Takács' detailed monograph in English is poised to play a similarly significant role in advancing the study of the spread of French Gothic in Europe. Overviews of European Gothic art can now be enriched with new insights into the contributions of the sculptors from Reims who worked in Central Europe, especially in Hungary, including their achievements in Pannonhalma (recent publications often ignored these connections). The monograph also contributes to a clearer interpretation of the Villard de Honnecourt question. For these reasons, the availability of a major synthesis of Imre Takács' scholarly achievements in the language of international scholarship is both very welcome and of great importance. 

Finally, a word about the excellent and high-quality production of this elegant hardcover volume. The book is presented in a different format from the Hungarian edition, featuring 536 pages and 676 high-quality illustrations seamlessly integrated into the text. The way the black-and-white illustrations accompany the text significantly enhances the readability of the volume (a major improvement compared to the Hungarian edition). It should also be noted that the book has been translated by Alan Campbell with exceptional precision and a high linguistic standard. It surely belongs to the shelf of all serious scholars of the Gothic!

In Hungary, the book can currently be purchased at the bookstore of ELTE. It is also possible to contact the publisher, Collegium Professorum Hungarorum (Makovecz Campus Alapítvány) for further information.

Szászbogács Summer University Course Organized for the Fourth Time

Owl on the southern choir stalls at
Szászbogács, 1533

In August 2024, the Szászbogács Summer University Course for Monument Protection was organized by Asio Association and the Pro Professione Foundation for the fourth time. Held at the Transylvania Saxon fortified church of Szászbogács / Băgaciu / Bogeschdorf, the summer course focused on the architectural and artistic heritage of the Szekler Lands. The idea of the summer university comes from Transylvanian restorer Ferenc Mihály, a prominent representative of heritage protection in Transylvania. In the autumn of 2017, he suggested that the unused Saxon fortified church of Szászbogács would be suitable for launching a regular summer university course organized in cooperation with Hungarian and Romanian university departments providing complex training in areas related to heritage conservation. Based on this idea, the summer courses are jointly organized by the art history departments of four universities (Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Károli Gáspár University, and Babeș-Bolyai University), together with the Conservation Department of the Hungarian University of Fine Arts and the Department of the History of Architecture and Monument Protection of BME (Budapest University of Technology). The summer course aims to bring together students from these departments to mutually gain insight into the methodologies of the different disciplines. Several presentations are held on methods and the students can also practice architectural survey and documentation, various techniques of conservation surveys and documentation methods, and so on. In addition, each year's course has a thematic focus, which provides the topic of lectures and a two-day study tour in the area. Each year, distinguished guest speakers are invited to give insight into new research and even the methods of related fields, such as archaeology. This year, the lectures and the study tour concentrated on medieval and early modern art in the territories of the Szeklers (Székelyföld). 

The Saxon fortified church of Szászbogács / Băgaciu / Bogeschdorf

In addition to providing instruction to the students, the staff and students of the summer course study significant medieval buildings in the region. This activity focuses on the medieval churches of the Transylvanian Saxons - which now often stand without the communities that once used them. In many cases, barely any documentation is available on these buildings, some of which are in a rather derelict condition due to neglect. Documentation activity was carried out in the church of Szászbogács as well, and in 2024, the abandoned medieval church of Szásznagyvesszős (Veseuș, Michelsdorf) was surveyed. The Lutheran fortified church of Szászbogács has perfectly preserved its medieval characteristics in detail, too: the single-nave longitudinal nave and the polygonal choir are covered with rib vaults, completed with a remarkably sized western tower. Its furniture makes an elaborated reconstruction of medieval use possible: the sedilia and other niches of the chancel, the intact medieval altar mensa, and the baptismal font represent a vast array of minor-architectural furnishing of the liturgical space. This is complemented by a composition of wall paintings from several periods, a winged altar of exceptional quality, two late-Gothic choir stalls, and the original hardware of the sacristy door and gate. This extremely multi-layered historic ensemble makes the church of Szászbogács particularly suitable for studying and applying various methods of art history.

Students discussing about the main altar of Szászbogács

The goals of the summer university and the activities of the first year (2019) were summarized in an article in issue 3-4/2019 of the journal Műemlékvédelem (available online, but with a subscription). In the same journal, the preliminary results of the investigation of the medieval murals of Szászbogács were also published (in a brief study by István Bóna and myself). In 2022, the thematic focus was on late medieval altarpieces and wall paintings in Transylvania, you can find a Hungarian-language overview of the year's activities here. In 2023, we focused on Árpád-period architecture. In addition to the summer course, several small conferences were organized in Budapest, where the students could present their research or observations. Several studies have already appeared or are in preparation based on research started at the summer courses. In the future, the organizers hope to continue not only these annual events, but wish to establish a more permanent competence center for the study, preservation, and restoration of historic monuments in Transylvania.

The Lutheran church of Szásznagyvesszős / Veseuș / Michelsdorf

Visit to the medieval church of Oklánd / Ocland, to study the newly restored frescoes

The author of this blog (Zsombor Jékely, left) helping Mihály Jánó during his presentation
on the wall paintings of the Legend of Saint Ladislas

Art in Medieval Hungary - Now on Smarthistory!

Being busy has kept me from updating this blog for some time, however, I was busy getting information out about the art of medieval Hungary to other platforms. I would like to call your attention to two of my essays published on the Smarthistory website: one on the statue of St. George, and the other on the Bakócz-chapel in Esztergom. The essays were written as part of a project aimed at creating content related to Eastern Europe to the site. Edited and partly written by Dr. Alice Isabella Sullivan, these new essays present case studies of objects and monuments from the areas to the north of the Danube River (15th-17th centuries). You can already find several of them online! Let's hope that the project can continue with even more content on this superb educational platform.

The first essay is dedicated to the bronze statue of Saint George in Prague Castle. Regarded as one of the most significant bronze statues of the late Middle Ages, it features Saint George and the dragon. The lively and dynamic composition is about three-quarters life-size (almost 2 meters high). The horse rides toward the left on a rocky terrain inhabited by snakes and lizards but rears up and turns his head back toward the dragon. Saint George holds his spear in his right hand and thrusts it diagonally in front of the horse, hitting the dragon's throat. In his left hand, he once held a shield with a cross and an inscription that dated the work to 1373 and named its makers: Martin and Georg of Kolozsvár. You can find more information in my essay.

The second essay is about the Bakócz-chapel, located in the cathedral of Esztergom. Although it is not in its original form today, this chapel was the earliest centrally-planned Renaissance building north of the Alps. Commissioned by Cardinal Tamás Bakócz (archbishop of Esztergom from 1497 to 1521), the chapel is a unique survival from the medieval cathedral of Esztergom and a groundbreaking Renaissance structure finished just a few years before the collapse of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary. You can continue reading about the chapel here.

The Island - Saint Margaret and the Dominicans (new exhibition in Budapest)

A new temporary exhibition opened at the Budapest History Museum, dedicated to St Margaret and the Dominican monastery on Margaret Island. The story and fate of Saint Margaret, the thirteenth-century saintly princess, has always captured the imagination of people interested in history. The exhibition offers visitors a selection of artifacts never before exhibited anywhere. The occasion for the exhibition is the 750th anniversary of Margaret's death in 2020, and the fact that in the last two decades our knowledge of the religious institution that was the home of the young princess of the Árpád dynasty has increased considerably. This is primarily thanks to the research of Eszter Kovács, who passed away in 2018 and who had carried out several small-scale excavations in the area of the Dominican monastery. This is how the fragments of wall paintings, probably dating from the 14th and 15th centuries, were found, which are on display for the first time in this exhibition.

Margaret, the daughter of King Béla IV, was born in 1242 at the time of the Mongol invasion.  We know that she was brought up as a child in the Dominican monastery in Veszprém, which had been founded shortly before, and at the age of 10, she was transferred to the monastery on Margaret Island, which her parents had built. During her canonization process, the testimonies of her contemporaries, recorded in 1276, tell of her dedicated, sacrificial, and self-sacrificing lifestyle, her unending faith in Christ, and the miracles that took place in her life and at her tomb. Margaret's role model was her aunt, the sister of Béla IV, St Elizabeth of Hungary, who was canonized as early as 1235.

Despite all attempts and royal support, Margaret's canonization was not achieved in the Middle Ages. It was her brother, Stephen V, who was the first to attempt this: but neither he, nor Ladislas IV, nor their successors from the House of Anjou were successful. We don't know exactly when she was elevated to the Blessed, but there are many records of this from the 15th century and we also know of many medieval depictions of Margaret. Her cult in Hungary developed soon after her death: she was buried in front of the main sanctuary of the Dominican church, and later an ornate white marble sarcophagus was made for her body, with reliefs depicting her miraculous deeds. Based on her oldest legend and the canonization records, further versions of the legend were written, and a Hungarian-language version was produced at the end of the Middle Ages. The veneration of St Margaret has been almost unbroken over the centuries. Her relics and bones were taken to Pozsony (Bratislava) by the nuns in the 16th century to escape the Ottoman threat. Most of the bones were lost in the 18th century, but perhaps her most famous relic, her penitential belt, has survived, and its ornate reliquary box and an authentic replica of the medieval object can also be admired in the exhibition. Also on display is the funerary crown of King Stephen V (Margaret's brother), also buried on Margaret Island, from the collection of the Hungarian National Museum, the discovery of which in 1838 marked the start of systematic excavations of the monastery ruins.

Funerary crown of King Stephen V (Hungarian National Museum)

Thanks to the excavations, the extent of the former monastery and its church is well-known, and it has been possible to reconstruct the most important phases of its construction. Among the spectacular results of the recent research are the fragments of wall paintings, most of which can now be seen by the public for the first time thanks to the restoration work of Eszter Harsányi. Wall paintings have been found in several parts of the monastery, including the small room where the staircase leading from the monastery to the nuns' choir was located in the late Middle Ages. The colorful pieces of plaster fragments preserving halos and faces hint at the relationship of St Margaret and her fellow nuns to images: her legend describes the role of Calvary images and other representations in her prayer and contemplation. 

Imitation marble painting from the monastery building

Ignác Roskovics: Saint Margaret (for the Royal Palace)

When the nuns were forced to flee from the Ottoman attacks in the sixteenth century, the monastery complex became abandoned. It was only used during sieges, for example as a field hospital during the recapture of Buda in 1686. The greatest destruction, however, was not caused by the wars, but by the landscaping of the island in the 19th century, when the owner of the area, Archduke Joseph of Austria, had it turned into an English garden. Like so many other monuments of the Hungarian Middle Ages, our image of the Dominican monastery on Margaret Island must be pieced together from small fragments. The current state of research on Saint Margaret and her cult was presented at a conference organized jointly by the Apostolic Congregation of the Dominican Sisters, the Károli Gáspár Reformed University, and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, while the Budapest History Museum has collected the material relics essential for the reconstruction. The exhibition will allow us to recall the figure of Saint Margaret and the monastery where she spent most of her life and which became the center of her cult.

The curator of the exhibition is Ágoston Takács. This text is based on the speech I gave at the opening of the exhibition on November 17, 2022. The exhibition is on view until March 19, 2023.

Zsombor Jékely speaking at the opening ceremony - Photo by Magyar Kurír