Small Architecture around 1200 from the Medieval Cathedral of Eger. Context, form, type

Havasi, Krisztina (2023) Small Architecture around 1200 from the Medieval Cathedral of Eger. Context, form, type. In: Repenser histoire d’lart médiéval en 2023. Recueil d’études offertes à Xavier Barral i Altet. Brepols, pp. 335-348. ISBN 978-953-8250-18-7

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Abstract

The renovation of the medieval cathedral of Eger (Agria/Erlau, Hungary) around 1200 is confirmed by numerous fragments of red andesitic tuff and greyish white marble carvings. These fragments must have formed part of small architectural structures, probably a choir and/or a choir screen. The carvings emerged sporadically or during archaeological research, divorced from a proper architectural context. The cathedral building, which they once belonged to, was destroyed in the late 18th century. Hence, the dimensions and exact ground plans of the 12th-century chancel and choir cannot be established. The surviving fragments come from two thin-walled structures of different sizes and articulated with a row of blind niches. These marble niche fragments contain both pieces with ornamental frames and with inlaid spandrels. The entablatures of the wall articulated by the row of niches are adorned with wavy scrolls and palmettes, inhabited scrolls filled with animals and mythological beings. An opus sectile as well as further inlaid and inscribed fragments also formed part of the small architecture. This paper seeks to explore the connections of form and typology of the fragmented edifice, while taking a look at the relics of European Romanesque architecture as well as 11th-12th-century Hungarian architecture and its ‘antecedents’.

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