Hungary Medieval Arts – Eastern Hungary

Eastern Hungary

The denomination of Hungary Orientale for the vast region that constitutes the eastern half of the od. Hungary, historically distinct from the S and E areas, is arbitrary and yet necessary from a historical-artistic point of view. In fact, for this area there was no definition of a region, as for the Transdanubia (v.); however this distinction is useful above all because of the post-medieval fate of those areas which, between the 15th and 17th, they were conquered and occupied by the Turks. The region was already distinguished in the Middle Ages for the different awareness it had of itself as an area without a Roman past and belonging to the barbarian area, being outside the Danube limes. Hungarians since the beginning of their invasion, since the territory was suitable for the nomadic lifestyle they had led in the steppes of eastern Europe. While to the North and to the South the region could be clearly delimited, its eastern borders towards Transylvania underwent displacements over time, because the principality of Transylvania, formed in 1571, also territorially embraced the committees of the Hungary eastern medieval. Eastern, understood as a historical region, is largely found in the od. Hungary, but its southern and eastern offshoots currently belong to Serbia, Romania and Ukraine. It remains controversial whether – according to the od. political geography – the eastern area of ​​Slovakia (the northeastern committees of the medieval Hungary Abaúj, Sáros, Zemplén, Ung, Bereg) should be considered part of the Hungary northern or eastern in a broader sense. The medieval border of the region was formed to the East by the mountains of Transylvania, while to the North by a flat strip along the Tisza, closed by the mountains Mátra and Bükk: here the border with the Hungary northern is not clearly defined, for the simple fact that the two regions have experienced similar historical and historical-artistic phenomena. Due to the scarcity of stone suitable for use as building material, brick buildings with rare use of stone elements are widespread in the region. 11th, at the time of the struggle of King Stephen I (1000 / 1001-1038) against the pagan princes or those linked to Byzantium, and remained substantially unchanged until the end of the Middle Ages. Starting from the sec. 13th, the committees at the northern end of the region doubled or expanded their original surface during the expansion phase of the settlement areas. After the Mongol invasion, the Cumans and the Jazigi settled in correspondence with the middle course of the Tisza River, who, not included in the organization of the committees, had their own autonomy. The ecclesiastical topography of the region is clearer than its political subdivision. The northwestern part was occupied by the suffragan dioceses of Esztergom: that of Vác, to the N of the area between the Danube and the Tisza, and that of Eger, to the NE, up to the northeastern Carpathians and the River Tisza. An enclave also belonged to the diocese of Eger, the Archdeacon of Pankota, S of the Maros River. The southeastern areas of the region belonged to the archdiocese of Kalocsa-Bács and its suffragan dioceses of Várad and Csanád. The relocation of the headquarters of the latter in the late century. 11 ° (Kalocsa towards Bács; Marosvár towards Csanád; Bihar towards Várad) attests an expansion of the region to the South, at the expense of the ancient area of ​​influence of Eastern Christianity.

The cathedral of Kalocsa I, whose plan is known only thanks to the excavations of the century. 19 °, presented a large western body certainly from the beginning of the century. 11 °; the grave goods of an archiepiscopal tomb of about 1200, located in the axis of the church, are preserved, including a chalice with paten, a curl of pastoral, a pallium clip and fragments of fabric (Kalocsa, Mus. Diocesano). the ancient ones of the region are mostly preserved in the peripheral areas. The Benedictine abbey of Feldebrö – consecrated according to a source of 1219 to the Holy Cross – was originally a square building with five naves, with four apses and an oriental crypt with two spans, rebuilt in the late century. 12th with three naves. It is located in the territory of the Aba lineage and its dating to the first third of the century. 11 ° is based only on the tradition according to which king Samuele Aba was buried there (d. 1044). The crypt preserves significant remains of paintings in a northern Italian-Bavarian style of the late 11th or early 12th century.The series of monasteries of noble foundation opens with the abbey of Százd (1067), also linked it to the Aba, of which only some remains of the walls remain; to the sec. The Benedictine abbeys (built on commission from important families) also date back to the 12th century, which follow an architectural typology linked to the reformed Benedictine monasticism, with pairs of oriental towers, such as those preserved in Boldva (burned in 1203) and in Ákos (od. Acîş) and like others attested by archaeological investigations, eg. Kaplony (od. Căpleny), Csoltmonostor and Bátmonostor. L’ Benedictine abbey of Szermonostor (od. Pusztaszer), built in various phases starting from the late century. 11 °, presented in its form of the century. 12 ° a three-nave plan with a western apse and four towers.An important group of Romanesque buildings is made up of rotundas with six-lobed apses and a central elevated domed part, such as those of Gerény (od. Gorjany), Karcsa and Kiszombor, dating from no earlier than the end of the 12th century. Only the cathedral of Eger remains, a building with three apses with a pair of oriental towers, from the late century. 11th, transformed in the thirteenth century; of the cathedral of Vác, built around 1070, remains only evidence in a plan of the city from the Baroque era, while that of Csanád cannot be located with certainty and of the cathedral of Várad only ruins remain. beginning of the century 13 ° the art of the Hungary oriental shows to be affected by the art of the court. The result of this trend seems to be the building of the cathedral of Kalocsa II, a basilica with three naves with transept, ambulatory and radial chapels, built under the archbishop Bertoldo of Andechs-Merania and begun in 1207-1218, of which some fragments remain of architectural sculpture (Budapest, Magyar Nemzeti Gal.; Kalocsa, archbishop’s palace). The ancient Premonstratensian church of Ócsa, prior to 1234, reveals in the architectural sculpture direct relations with the cathedral and with the royal palace of Esztergom. Other buildings in this group are the nave built to the West of the Karcsa rotunda, the Premonstratensian church of Jánoshida, with early Gothic portals and fragments of a stone retable, and Benedictine abbey of Aracs (od. Araća), in ruins. In the century 13 ° played an important role in the cultural development of the region, in particular as regards the peripheral areas, the Premonstratensians – with Váradelöhegy (before 1131), founded directly by Prémontré and mother in turn of most of the Hungarian foundations, Lelesz (od. Lelese; before 1212) and Jászó (od. Jasov; 1200 ca.) – and the Cistercians. The latter settled in the abbey of Egres (od. Igriş), founded by Pontigny in 1179, and in the subsidiaries of the abbey of Pilis: Pásztó, taken from the Benedictines in 1190, and Bélháromkút (Trium sourcesum, od. Bélapátfalva), built from 1232 in two phases and finished after 1242, whose abbey, belonging to the Bernardine type with a chapel on each side of the transept and a straight choir, it is substantially well preserved, while the monastic structure was brought to light following archaeological investigations. From the excavations of the abbey of Szermonostor come (certainly from the cloister) column-statues of the beginning of the 13th century. For Hungary 2006, please check computergees.com.

The whole region was deeply devastated during the Mongol invasion of 1241-1242. Archaeological researches attest to the existence of numerous abandoned settlements and lost churches, but rural churches from the late century have been preserved only in the peripheral areas. 13th and the beginning of the 14th, which show the survival of Romanesque building typologies with provincial Gothic architectural decoration and vaults built according to local construction techniques. oriental demonstration in the course of the century. 14th, especially along the commercial routes, more intense growth. In the episcopal seat of Eger (period of bishop Nicola Dörögdi, 1332-1361; foundation walls known from excavations) and in that of Várad (founded in 1242; known from the description of a local chronicle and for some fragments of sculpture) an ambulatory choir with a crown of chapels was built. A single fragment of mural painting by a fourteenth-century Florentine artist (Esztergom, Keresztény Múz.), And above all the activity of the brothers Martino and Giorgio Kolozsvári, whose bronze statues (figures stanti of three Hungarian holy kings, c. 1370; St. Ladislaus on horseback, 1389) were destroyed in the second half of the 17th century. These early testimonies of the art of bronze casting are attested only thanks to inscriptions preserved in transcriptions and representations; the only fixed point to define the style of these two masters remains the statue of St. George, made by them in 1373 (Prague, Národní Gal.). In the two market centers located along the long-range trade routes, namely Szeged (parish church of St. Demetrius, destroyed before 1928) and Debrecen (parish church of St. Andrew, burned in 1902, attested by drawings and foundation walls), were built in the second half of the century. 14 ° large ‘hall’ churches.