Esztergom Basilica
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Esztergom Basilica is an ecclesiastic basilica in Esztergom, Hungary, the main church of the Archdiocese of Esztergom-Budapest, and the seat of the Catholic Church in Hungary. It is dedicated for the Blessed Virgin Mary Taken into Heaven, and Saint Adalbert.
As a building, it is the largest church in Hungary. Its inner area is 56,000 m². It is 118 m long and 49 m wide. It has a reverberation time of more than 9 seconds. Its dome, forming a semi-sphere, is situated in the middle, and it has 12 windows. It is 71.5 m high inside, with a diameter of 33.5 metres, and is 100 m high from outside, counted from the crypt, thus it is the tallest building in Hungary.
The altarpiece (13.5 × 6.6 metres, depicting the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, by Michelangelo Grigoletti) is the largest painting in the world painted on a single piece of canvas.
The basilica is also known for Bakócz Chapel (named after Tamás Bakócz), built by Italian masters between 1506–1507 out of red marble of Süttő, its walls adorned with Tuscan Renaissance motifs. It is the most precious remaining example of Renaissance art in Hungary.
The huge crypt, built in Old Egyptian style in 1831, is today the resting place of late archbishops, among others, József Mindszenty.
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[edit] History
The building of the present church took place on the foundation of several earlier churches. The first was built by Stephen I of Hungary between 1001-1010 (as the original Saint Adalbert church), the first cathedral in Hungary, which was burnt at the end of XII century. It was rebuilt, but not too much remained of it, and was almost completely destroyed under the Tartar (Mongol) Invasion. It was rebuilt again in the XIII and XIV century, and a huge library was added, the second most significant one in the country. It was ruined again under Turkish rule, in 1543. In 1820, the archiepiscopacy returned at last to the city, and archbishop Alexander Rudnay (Rudnay Sándor in Hungarian) decided to make Esztergom again the ecclesiastical centre of the country.
Plans were made by Pál Kühnel, and the leader of the construction was János Packh. The foundation-stone was laid and work began in 1822. The Bakócz chapel, taken to 1600 numbered pieces, was attached to the new basilica 20 metres farther, 10 metres lower. In 1838, Packh was assassinated, and the archbishop trusted József Hild with the leading of the construction, and he completed it in Classicistic style. The new archbishop, János Scitovszky, urged the completion of the high church, so it was inaugurated on August 31, 1856, a good while before the full completion in 1869. The 1856 celebration ceremony was crowned by the Mass of Esztergom, a piece composed and conducted by Franz Liszt, his largest liturgical composition.
[edit] The organ
The renovation and enlargement of the organ started in the 1980s, after extended preparations, and it is currently in progress. It is supervised by István Baróti, the basilica's organist and choirmaster, who has been holding this position since 1975. The work still needs financial support for completion. The organ has 5 manuals and, by the autumn of 2006, it will have 85 stops working out of the planned set of 146 (currently there are approx. 75). This is where the biggest organ pipe can be found in Hungary, 10 m, 11 yard, in length. The smallest pipe is 7 mm, ¼ inch (without pipe foot). This organ, when ready, will be the third largest one in Europe, surpassing all organs in Hungary in its sound and variety. (Its only rival can be the modern organ of the Palace of Arts in Budapest but their acoustics are rather different, the basilica having a prominent echo due to the extended flat surfaces in the cupola while the sound of the Palace of Arts instrument is more absorbed.)
At the time of the construction, in 1856, the organ was unique in Hungary with its 49 stops, 3530 pipes and 3 manuals. The present organ preserves several stops from the instrument Liszt played.
