Saint Bartholomew Church: A Baroque Parish Church in Gyöngyös, Hungary
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.7
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Hungary
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Habsburg, Hungarian
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Church
On this page18 sections
History
Saint Bartholomew Church is a Roman Catholic church in Gyöngyös, Hungary, whose present Baroque form was built between 1746 and 1756 on the site of an older church. Dedicated to Saint Bartholomew, one of the Twelve Apostles and a Christian martyr, it belongs to the Archdiocese of Eger. Locally called the “Big Church,” it is the largest church in Gyöngyös and the surrounding area.
Medieval foundation and enlargement
A church stood on the site by the thirteenth century, and a charter dated 1301 confirms its existence. In 1320, Matthew Csák, a powerful Hungarian magnate whose authority extended across much of northern Hungary, ordered the church to be burned. Tamás Szécsényi financed its rebuilding.
The settlement expanded after Charles I of Hungary granted Gyöngyös market-town privileges in 1334 at the request of Szécsényi, its landlord. The growth of the town led to successive enlargements of the church. During the fifteenth century, the earlier building was replaced by a Gothic hall church, in which the nave and side aisles formed a unified interior rather than sharply separated levels. This church was described as the largest Gothic church in Hungary and contained twenty winged altars.
Ottoman-period damage and Baroque reconstruction
Fires during the Ottoman offensives repeatedly damaged the church. It was dismantled in 1741, and a new Baroque building was constructed between 1746 and 1756. Baroque architecture, an early-modern style known for rich ornament and elaborate spatial effects, shaped the new church, while portions of the Gothic walls were retained and rebuilt. The foundation stone of the Baroque chancel was laid on May 2, 1741.
The building continued to develop after the main reconstruction. The northern tower was erected in 1772 and 1773, while construction of the southern tower began in 1815. The earlier central tower was demolished only after the northern tower had been completed.
The 1917 fire and twentieth-century rebuilding
On May 21, 1917, a major fire devastated much of Gyöngyös and severely damaged the church. The fire continued for more than two days because the town had no water-pipe system, and water eventually had to be brought from Vámosgyörk. Nearly 600 houses burned and 11 people died. The church’s Baroque tower caps were destroyed in the disaster.
Reconstruction began in 1920 and was completed in 1922 under the architects Nagy Virgil and Wälder Gyula. Leading artists of the period, including Tardos Krenner Viktor and Dudits Andor, created the interior decoration and frescoes. The walls were entirely repainted during a renovation in 1992. The former tower caps were reconstructed in 2018 and 2019, restoring the building’s earlier external appearance.
Burials, treasures, and archaeological research
Several landlords of Gyöngyös and members of their families were buried in the church crypt. Archaeological research in the crypt and church has continued since the 1960s, and the results are presented in a glass-walled addition on the northern side. The display illustrates the successive construction phases that shaped the building.
During the Second World War, the church’s ecclesiastical treasures were concealed in a walled-up space behind the steps. They were discovered in the 1960s. The collection was founded by Guba Pál, a Piarist, a member of a Catholic order devoted especially to educating children and young people. It has been exhibited in the Korona Building since 1991, and that building was renovated between 2009 and 2014.
Remains
Saint Bartholomew Church occupies the main square of Gyöngyös, now called Károly Róbert Square. It is a large hall church with a predominantly Baroque appearance, although parts of the fifteenth-century Gothic walls survive within the later structure. The broad principal facade is flanked by two towers set unusually far apart. Each tower has three storeys and a clock cornice, and the towers rise about 30 metres to their present roofs.
Medieval and Baroque fabric
Gothic remains
The fifteenth-century church had a nave and two side aisles. Two paired Gothic windows on each side of the apse, the semicircular end of the sanctuary, remain as visible reminders of that phase. A Gothic-origin roof turret also rises above the sanctuary on the main ridge. These elements belong to the surviving evidence of the earlier church within the later building.
Baroque interior
The present interior has a unified Baroque character, with rich decoration, galleries along both sides, and a Czech-cap vault composed of curved, cap-like compartments covering the broad interior. Triforia, or interior galleries and passage-like openings above the main arcades, were added above the side aisles. They reduced the apparent height of those aisles by half and increased the church’s capacity to approximately 5,000 people.
Altars and baptismal font
The main altarpiece represents the martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew and was painted by Gábor Krannowetter in 1773. The altar dedicated to the Assumption of Mary dates from the seventeenth century, while the other altars and the pulpit date from the eighteenth century.
A Gothic bronze baptismal font or basin stands on the southern side of the sanctuary. It is variously dated to the fifteenth century or around the sixteenth century and is regarded as an exceptional rarity preserved within the church.
Towers and bells
Tower form and memorial bells
The towers are now covered by tent-shaped roofs forming low pyramids. Earlier Baroque caps raised them to approximately 52 metres before the 1917 fire destroyed them. Their reconstruction in 2018 and 2019 restored the former outline. A small memorial bell beneath the southern tower and another simple memorial bell beside the southern side entrance commemorate the 1917 fire.
Saint Bartholomew great bell
The Saint Bartholomew great bell hangs in the northern tower. Cast in Budapest by László Szlezák in 1926, it weighs 2,421 kilograms, measures 164 centimetres across its lower rim, and has a fundamental pitch of H0. Its inscriptions dedicate it to Saint Bartholomew as the town’s patron saint, name donors, and identify its maker. It is the third-largest bell in Heves County, after the two larger bells of Eger Cathedral.
Peace Bell
The southern tower contains the Peace Bell, an iron bell made in 1919. It weighs 1,300 kilograms, has a lower diameter of 137.5 centimetres, and sounds at a fundamental pitch of F1. Its Latin inscription means “Give peace, Lord, in our days,” followed by the year 1919. The bell is nearly unique in Hungary because of its iron construction and is used for the noon ringing.
Middle Bell
The Middle Bell hangs in the northern tower. It weighs 750 kilograms, has a lower diameter of 109.2 centimetres, and has a fundamental pitch of F1, nearly matching that of the Peace Bell. Its German inscription dates it to 1774, making it the oldest bell of the church and of the town.
Saint Paul the Apostle Bell
László Szlezák cast the Saint Paul the Apostle Bell in Budapest in 1926. It hangs in the northern tower, weighs 300 kilograms, measures 82.3 centimetres across its lower rim, and has a fundamental pitch of H1. A donor inscription, an invocation to Saint Paul, and the maker’s inscription accompany a relief showing the standing apostle.
Saint Mary Magdalene soul bell
The Saint Mary Magdalene soul bell is also in the northern tower. A soul bell is a small bell traditionally connected with prayers or commemorations for the dead. Cast and donated by László Szlezák and his wife, Anna Vancsó, in Budapest in 1926, it weighs 110 kilograms, has a lower diameter of 55.5 centimetres, and sounds at F2. Its inscriptions remember the donors’ parents and invoke Mary Magdalene, whose standing figure appears in relief.
Former Saint Michael bell
The former Saint Michael bell weighed 1,292 kilograms, measured 131 centimetres across its lower rim, and had a fundamental pitch of D1. Szlezák cast it in 1926. During the Second World War it was removed from the southern tower for military purposes, and the Peace Bell took its place.
The church once had seven bells, while five remained between the two world wars. Before the world wars, the roof turret also held a bell. The transfer of three smaller bells to the northern tower during the wartime period is uncertain, although one tradition says they were hidden there to prevent their requisition. Two of the smaller bells have not been used for several decades.
