Medieval Hungary: Szászbogács Summer University Course Organized for the Fourth Time

Thursday, August 22, 2024

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.