Minorite Church, Eger

The Minorite Church is one of the landmarks of Eger, located in Dóbo Square. The Minorites are a branch of the Franciscans (I had to look it up) and this church is dedicated to St Anthony of Padua. It has what I think is one of the most beautiful church façades I have seen.

Here is what Eberhard Hempel has to say on the historical background: "Through Bishop Karl, Count Esterházy, Eger (Erlau), too, was in 1762-90 turned by [Jakab] Fellner and his school into the most handsome Baroque town in Hungary. Here, alongside buildings influence by court and church architecture, there exist pleasing ones in a more middle-class, popular style. [...] In the church of the Minorites at Eger, built in 1758-63 by Matthias Gerl, the architect continued to develop the motif of curving the centre by the insertion of colossal double columns. The strongly expressive horizontal lines of the two main cornices seem literally to bind the building together, in contrast to the soaring movement of the two towers of 1758-73."

The altar, other views below

Just look at that...

Eger

Eger: Dóbo Square as seen from the Castle. The Minorite Church is most prominently visible; the towers of the Basilica are in the background.

The other weekend I went to Eger, a small and lovely city. Between its architecture, history, turkish baths, and vineyards, this is a place where you can really enjoy life. I have quite a few photos so I think I will break this into a few posts.

One of Eger's claims to fame is its repulsion of a Turkish siege in 1552, with István Dóbo as the commander of the castle. The women of Eger are famous for having helped win this battle and are the subject of various patriotic paintings. Another famous anecdote from the battle is that the Hungarian defenders drank red wine to bolster their courage and when the Turks saw their beards stained red a rumor flew around that the Hungarians had been drinking bulls' blood. Hence the name of the famous "Bikavér" or "Bulls' Blood" wine from this region.

Anyway, the whole castle was pretty much destroyed in 1552 and then rebuilt and reinforced; but not well enough apparently, because it fell to a second Turkish siege in 1592 and was ruled by the Turks for a century, later being retaken by the Austrians.

Evening yellows... the image below show some sort of Jesuit college. I love the light on the baroque ornaments.

Dóbo square by evening and morning. The squat walls and towers in the background are the castle--more of a fortified hill than a fairy tale palace.

The Basilica and the Minorite Church -- to be shown in greater detail in future posts

The "Szépasszonyvölgy" or Valley of the Beautiful Women--the wine-growing area just outside Eger

Visegrád

A couple weeks ago I took a day trip to Visegrád, a town near Budapest. It's easy to get to and I enjoyed it very much; I'd readily recommend it to anyone visiting Budapest for a few days. The town is located on the Danube, north of Budapest and past Szentendre--on the "Danube bend." Hundreds of years ago Visegrád was the capitol of Hungary, but now it's a tiny little town, with the ruins of a royal palace, and up above on the mountain that towers over the town, an old castle. You can hike up to the castle (25 minutes, maybe), and that's where the photo above is from, looking westwards on the Danube. Visegrád's history also links up Hungary, the Czechs and Slovaks, and Poland, and because of that there was a summit between those four republics here after the end of Communism.

Here you can see the palace, partly reconstructed. The most famous king to live here was Matthias Corvinus (Mátyás), who also gives his name to the beautiful Matthias Church in Budapest and is in my wallet every day on the 1000 forint bill. He is famous for being in touch with the Italian Renaissance, and indeed this palace featured fountains and carvings and altarpieces that were either imported from Italy or made by Italian craftsmen. I rather like the way he links the national and the cosmopolitan, and wouldn't mind learning more about him.

I love these carvings of lions and lion cubs from an old fountain...

The kitchen, recreated... to quote one of the signs, "Matthias spent a lot for the kitchen; he was a great lover of culinary pleasures. The historian Bonfini recorded that he went to the kitchen and controlled personally the cooks if he had a special guest, and in some cases he even helped there."

Serbian Orthodox Church in Szentendre

On Saturday I went up to Szentendre, a little town on the Danube north of Budapest. (The name means St. Andrew). In the summer it is an artist's colony and tourist attraction; in winter it's rather sedate. There are a couple of little art museums here, including one devoted to Margit Kovács, a sculptor who drew on folk art and biblical themes (worth looking into if that sounds interesting). Szentendre used to be a primarily Serbian town--in the days when ethnicities were more mixed in Central and Eastern Europe. I was told that less than twenty Serbian families remain. But there are a number of Serbian churches, including this one, which had a museum of Serbian religious art and artifacts along with it. I was intrigued by the mix of styles--orthodox art plus the baroque architectural and decorative style that you can see in the portal above and in the extravagant details of the iconostasis below. For me this combination is completely novel, although maybe the art historians out there could tell me it is common in this part of the world. The icons are a bit unusual too, soft and pastel, something like the kitschy style you see on Catholic prayer cards, though still with their solid gold haloes. 

Below are some more traditional icons. The one with the wings was marked as John the Baptist; based on several icons in the museum this seems to be a standard attribute. I like that his head is on a platter in the bottom left and thus shows up twice.

And then there are these images from the churchyard. A number of these stone plaques were affixed to the walls of the church and the masonry walls of the churchyard. The death's-heads reminded me of things you see on old New England Puritan headstones. It was very quiet and rather cold out here, lonely.

Fall at Dumbarton Oaks

These are pictures, a little old, from November of last year, taken at Dumbarton Oaks. Dumbarton Oaks is an estate in Georgetown, Washington, DC that is now owned by Harvard University, and is a museum and study center for Byantine and Pre-Columbian Amerindian arts as well as garden design. The estate all by itself is entrancing too; it has extensive gardens, of both the geometrical and the wild-ranging kinds. To any visitors in Washington, I insist that this deserves a visit at any time of year; Spring is especially beautiful.

Tocqueville, at the bottom of a birdbath. When the past does not illuminate the future the spirit advances in darkness.

Aquarius, from a small patio themed according to the zodiac. 

 

The swimming pool. PSA: if you are a Dumbarton Oaks employee you can swim here.

Parade at the Marine Barracks, Washington

Parade at the Marine Barracks at 8th and I, the "oldest post in the Corps"

The Marine bulldogs are all named "Chesty" (the Thirteenth, the Fourteenth, etc) and they have actual military ranks. One of the Chesties ran away one time--he was given a dishonorable discharge.

One of our colleagues is a Marine Officer so we were able to go to the Officers' Club. Now that was really interesting, but I don't have any photos. An old house the walls of which are decorated with flags, swords, rifles, paintings, and so on.

Zürich & Lake Zürich

Pics from early August