History

Monastery and parish
The church of St. Maurice Monastery and Bakonybél community were given their final form in the Baroque period, which has been well preserved to this day in terms of its essential features.  The church, consecrated on July 31 1754, has been a church of religious community from the beginning to the present day, and it is also parish. One of the striking architectural signs of this duality could be perceived until good half of the 18th century where the choir could only be accessed from the first floor of the monastery, as it was the place where the Divine office was performed, and it was also a clausure, a closed space. The situation only changed in the first decade of the 1800s. They then carved through the choir floor and built a spiral staircase of wood so that it could be moved from the foreground of the church to the choir. The realization of the wooden staircase from the foreground of the church and the nature of the pierced vault indicate the subsequent whole amount of work, as well as the fact that the spiral staircase connecting the church’s old sacristy and the floor was not built of wood but it was a stone staircase.

The church as a sacral center
The church is the sacral center of the community, where whoever steps in there can stand one by one gathering in front of God, where their prayers and expressions of gratitude are heard. The master builder of the Baroque church created a sacral space, that is to say, a space in which man could orientate himself finding contact with the unseen, inaudible, yet existing three-person one God. The master builder, whose name we do not know as the leader without words— with the help of the architectural and painting structure — gradually leads to the house of God. The signs point to the Holy of Holies, the kingdom of God. The generation that builds a temple, and the generation that respects the temple, both hope not from themselves, but from the Holy Spirit of God. The temple in this sense is a sign of hope. The tower of Christian churches points to the sky, where, as symbolic thinking suggests, the Creator lives .

Orientation of the medieval church
The rising Sun has been a symbol of Christ  since the Old Christian age. For this reason, the ancient and medieval Christian churches were pointed eastwards, that is to say, the east-west axis of the church was oriented in the direction of the rising Sun. Thus, the orientation of the shrine to the east is a symbolic act, for this reason it is possible that in the closed space of the temple one could find his way seeing the rays of the rising sun, sticking at last at the right direction contemplating his life in the mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection.

However, the sun appears in spring and winter, in different seasons, at different points on the horizon. Like other churches, the east-west axis of the medieval church was designed in correspondence of the temple sanctuary. This setting was put together from what we discovered in the sources, on the feast day of The Martyr Saint Maurice, the patron saint of the church. Where the sun rose on the feast day (farewell) of the patron of the church, the sanctuary was built oriented in that direction.

Orientation of the Baroque church
Since the Renaissance, the ancient canon that regulates the orientation of churches in the Western Christian Church has no longer been authoritative. The unknown Baroque master who designed and built the abbey church in Bakony breaks tradition with the ancient canon, which determined and interpreted the direction of the church throughout the entire cosmos. In this ancient canon, as we have seen, was reflected a cosmic, symbolic view.

The Baroque master builder introduces us as well to the Holy of Holies, the Kingdom of God, by other means— through the architecture and iconographic structure of the church— like its medieval ancestors. I will go into more detail for what exactly the architecture and iconographic structure of baroque sacral spaces means.

Based on the records of the monk from Celestine Göncz in the 1690s, it can be assumed that the first temporary shrine was built at the beginning of the 18th century on the site or in the immediate proximity of the medieval church, and, presumably for practical reasons. The shrine of the baroque church faces west for 250 years.

What could have been this practical aspect? In short, the spatial relationship between the church and the settlement. In the 18th century due to the monastery abbots own initiative, many settler families came from the Highlands and Germany. These families were given plots of land along the road leading to the Borostyán Fountain, as well as on the hillside: today’s Main Street and along Kossuth Street. (Houses were built along Pápai Road on Fürdő Street only in the 20th century, as evidenced by the photos from the beginning of the 20th century.) Thus, it is understandable that the simplest way to approach the church was from the east, so the only entrance of the church was located on the eastern wall. — This put in evidence some explanations for the 180-degree displacement of the east-west axis of the temple.

The foundation stone of the church and the altar-stone
Extract from the diary of Emilian Pirnecker, prior governor of Bakony:

29 April — After 8:00 a.m. the present honorable Archabbot Sajgó Benedict laid the foundation stone in the middle of the shrine’s base wall located at the west side of the new church, which contains the relics of the saints. Father Emilian, governor of the place was present as well as Father Columban and Tibor. Still, the honorable Archabbot returned to St. Martin the same day, after lunch, with his sidekicks. — This extract of the diary deserves attention: this foundation stone laying is a symbolic act. The relics of the Saints were hidden in the foundation stone, more precisely in the foundation wall of the shrine. Archabbot Benedict Sajgó is willing to teach us that we are their martyrs heirs, so that we can frankly be faithful disciples to the death.

Nowadays, when bishops consecrate an altar, a martyr’s relic is placed in the canteen altar. In the church of Bakonybél all relics were placed in the three canteen altars, with this symbol church is connected with catacombs, the tombs of the martyrs, where our ancestors secretly presented the holiest sacrifice.

The concept of sacral space
The Christian church, as a built sacral space, is closed and open, i.e. the interior is intrinsically connected with the cosmos, the created world. This is vitally important for all prayers for it creates an integral connection to the world from which they came the minute they enter to the church . Thus, the church in Bakony also has both exterior and interior spaces. The exterior of the church changed markedly over the centuries, as in the middle of the 18th century it was surrounded by a square castle wall, which was demolished by Abbot Guzmics Izidor in the 1830s. Two contemporary paintings of this monastery and a part of the surrounded castle wall were left to us. One of them is a large painting of the Altar of St. Maurice in the Church of Bakony, where the once again built from scratch monastery and church are offered by St. Stephen and Blessed Giselle to St. Maurice and his martyr companions. The other smaller painting can be seen in the Benedictine Monastery of Győr’s refectory, whose theme and composition are extremely similar to the altarpiece in Bakony dedicated to St. Maurice by the painter Ignác Pollinger from the village of Pápa.

It is of high evidence that the Baroque church was not built on a high ground. Three hundred years ago, as far as we know, they consciously wanted to build on the medieval ruins, the sanctified place. The most beautiful valley of The High Bakony is wreathed in mountains, yet for unknown reason 1,000 years ago, our ancestors built the monastery and the church in a valley.

Stairs often lead to the doorstep of most churches, for builders are willing to show that the church has an outstanding, distinguished place in our lives. Contrary to this general practice, it is impressive that the threshold of the church in Bakony is at the same level with the outside pavement level. This level correspondence already existed, according to photos taken in 1938. Nowadays, space levels are therefore not separated, no hierarchical relationship between the exterior and the interior is to be noticed. Another surprising fact is the absence of level difference between the shrine and the temple ship where no steps are seen, although there are two steps to the main altar of the church. We can only assume that two and a half centuries ago the space levels were more distinct.

The sacral space is both closed and open, hiding people who enter in the church in such a way that it makes possible to exist outside, in the outside world. This space artificially constructed can be called sacral space if the architect is able to establish a connection between the inner and outer worlds by specific means, between the creature and the Creator, and within a man who is similar to himself. He is able to gather all this connections to create unity and peace. The sacral space is the place of communication, the communion, which gradually purifies and reshapes: the encounter with the Saint vitally merges together all the things that have been fragmented as a result of sin.

The temple is a sacral space in which we can gather in the name of the Saint and experience the Holiness of God with extraordinary force. Here we present the holy sacrifice, here we go in for sharing the gifts of the Creator. In addition to the concept of built sacral space, we must distinguish between the concept of natural sacral space, which is shaped by nonhuman hands, i.e. sacred spaces found in nature such as caves, sacred groves.

Initiation: introduction to the Holy of Holies
The sacral space is an initiation space, the space of initiation, since the person who enters the church can be part of the mystery. The initiation is indirectly convey by the architect and directly carried out by the priest who leads the Holy Liturgy. As a matter of fact, they could properly guide us to make sense of self-understanding, as well as in writings and tangled human relationships, and ultimately they can teach us to pray. Our horizons are narrowed as a result of sin, and as a result it is reasonable to lose sight of the Holy Spirit. According to the teachings of Jesus Christ, it is the Holy Spirit that teaches us all things. According to St. Paul, He is the one who prays within us with unspeakable whispers. Through him—gradually—we can see ourselves, our neighbours as God alone sees us.

The Baroque sacral view of space
Horizontal and vertical movement — The ground structure of roman Catholic baroque churches are mostly broad, and that is the case of the Baroque church in Bakony. The interior design of the building is also quite simple.

People entering from the east gate of the church find themselves in a rather dark galilee, from which we can climb to the choir floor on a post-developed spiral staircase to the left. Moving to the right on the lower level of the tower there is a small chapel. After the cross vaults of the choir on the side walls and the two stack of columns, the space expands: our gaze is by all means captured by the much brighter church nave and the shrine. The fact that the church has a single-nave, a well extended structure as well as the imposing height of the ceiling and the interior of the shrine enhance significantly the horizontal and vertical dynamics. In addition to the well-developed necessary area, the height of baroque sacral spaces gives place to a symbolic meaning: everyone who is inside still finds himself in a spacious space, although one steps into a man made   building. When we perceive the spacious space, we look up.

Architecture — “The church nave is covered with four czech glass vaults, which with the help of a simple ledge can lay on some crowned pilasters. The rhythm of the pilasters is broken only by the  arch of triumph wall that separates the shrine. The straight closing shrine is of the same height and width as the nave, and its vault is exactly similar to the nave.” (TERDIK New Year’s Eve, in.: History of the St. Maurice Monastery of Beli, 2002.)

The rithmically repetitive czech arches gradually direct our focus towards then shrine, and our footsteps follow our gaze as well. In front of the arch of triumph, where once the shrine was separated from the nave and was connected as well in other ways to the so called communion grid, it is suggested to stop. The priest in service and his other ministrants could enter at any time around the shrine.

The priest carrying out the Holy Liturgy at the beginning of the prefatio normally address us: “Let us raise our hearts. Our answer: We have risen him to the Lord.” So there is a range of sacral space that we can only enter with our hearts… The aim of our everyday fight for the purity of the heart is precisely to desire to be capable and ready and for this lift-forward step, to grasp and see a diversity of color changes of his reality in front of him. You can see clearly with your heart as the center of human beings. Organs of spatial movement, displacement in sacral space: feet, eyes and heart. And the ear, for hearing and doing all that the initiator calls us to do is not easy: Let us raise our hearts…

When we raise our eyes we can see that the ledge on the wall and the main altar is at the same height. This correspondence and identity also deserves attention, for behind the main altar  a walled window opening is located, which suggests that the architectural plans of the main altar may have been made afterwards. The main altar was built in 1758, four years after the consecration of the church. In 1758, Ignác Pollinger and the wood carving workshop from Pápa, who designed and constructed the altar of St. Maurice, did not incorporate the glass window into the composition on the west wall, but when they determined the level of the stack stone pillars, they decided to adapt to the architecture of the church already built. The level of the ledge, the columns on the wall and the main altar is at the same height. And that, as we will see, is not an eventual decision.

The light mysticism — On the north wall of the Baroque church there are four glass windows, on the south wall there are two plus one (the third is the window of the oratorio), on the east and west walls one window was been kept opened (the west window has been walled off, presumably because of the protection of the St. Maurice altar). Compared to medieval churches, in baroque ones we find much larger and much more windows. Natural and abundant light is necessary to make everything clearly visible — the emphasis on visuality is a feature of the Baroque period. On the other hand, less natural light has been introduced into Christian churches of the Roman period, which has technical and partly symbolic explanations. Windows were rarely opened on the north side of the churches. In addition to protect churches from cold north winds, the symbolic approach also reinforced this practice, since the North is a province of evil powers. In the church we can meet God who is invisible to the eye and inaudible to the ear. Master builders and architects had a thirst of knowledge and helped out to raise the heart by carefully defining the light-shadow relationships, and without a better word, by creating pale light, dimness and mystical light. How can we connect with the hiding God? To this question, as we can see, the Baroque master builder gave a slightly different answer than the medieval man.

Iconographic program
To our knowledge, this Baroque church was not depicted in the 18th century. It was painted by Abbot Miklós Sárkány in 1855, presumably inspired by the jubilee, the church in the village, and frescoes were also made on the ceilings, which were whitewashed by Father Koller Keve in the 1970s.

The image order and iconographic structure of the Baroque churches were regulated by written and unwritten canons, which fortunately can be studied on the frescoes located on the ceiling of the Basilica of Zirc as well as in the Benedictine church in Győr and in the Abbey in Tihany. On the vault above the ledge, pictures of the Heavenly Jerusalem were depicted, the glorified Church, and under the ledge images of the struggling Church were found. So the topic of the images under the ledge are different from the images above the ledge, still the two levels together form a whole, a unified iconographic set. Let us examine from the mentioned point of view the composition of the main altar, the Altarpiece of St. Maurice. The following structures reflect the nuanced relationship between the world above and below, that is to say, above and below the ledge:

– In the main image, the gestures of the royal couple and the glorious saints, i.e. the hand gestures of each character, are directed upwards, cf. if one person gives a gift to the other, they look at each other, but in this case the gestures indicate a different communication.
– Colour diversity of the draperies, cf. Blessed Giselle, Saint Maurice and the glorified Son of God’s body covered in red drapery
– In both pictures, the painter composes the main figures into a triangle, cf. the image above the ledge depicts the Virgin Mary in heaven placing the Holy Trinity crown on her head, and in the image below the ledge the figures of St. Stephen, Blessed Giselle and St. Maurice could be seen at the three ends of the equilateral triangle. One difference it is to be noticed: it is aligned with the tip of the two triangles.
– At the top tip of the lower triangle there is a male saint, at the lower tip of the upper triangle there is the figure of a female saint.
– St. Maurice is at the geometric center of the altarpiece, but the Holy Trinity can be seen at the theological center of the main altar.

Symmetries and variants suggest that the two images have a complementary relationship. From people point of view, what it is to say to Ignatius Pollinger’s contemporaries and to today’s churchgoers? In the middle of the 18th century, in the re-catolicatism period the painter from Pápa presumably illustrates the essence of good worship: in the Saints the unseen God becomes visible. Saints are not men capable of extraordinary accomplishments, but reflections of the Holy Ghost, whether they were born male or female. The wordless teaching of Ignác Pollinger, given in pictures could be in this way explained: Saint Maurice and his martyr companions, patrons of the monastery and the community were men of most kindness who, at the time of the violence, clung to the words of Jesus and did not attack Roman soldiers who killed them, cf. “Blessed are the meek, for they inherit the earth”  (Matthew 5,5)

Dedication of the church
Extract from the diary of Emilian Pirnecker, Governor of Bakony

23 September —We celebrated St. Maurice and his martyr companions. In Hungary, Father Martin Jankovics, the cellerar of the monastery of St. Martin, gave a speech in the new church, which has not yet been cleaned. Father Engelbert preached the word of God in german. They came in a procession from Kadyr, Koppány and Ugod. The procession of the Zirc and Olaszfalu believers, led by Father Tádé,e was diredct to the Monastery of Zirc. A procession has also arrived from Porva.

July — Honorable Archabbot Sajgó Benedict from the monastery of St. Martin and Father Andrew and myself arrived at around 5 p.m. on July 30th to consecrate his new church. The next day, on the feast of St. Ignatius, he consecrated the church in our presence (those present: Father Prior and governor Emilian, Father Bálint and Andrew and Tomas Krisán, a world priest, whose apartment here was authorized by the Honorable Archabbot.) And on the 1^st of August, the already mentioned honorable Archabbot set off with his companions to St. Martin’s monastery after 12 o’clock.

November — On the 7th day of the month, two bells were set up in the tower, one weighing just over 600 libra and the other exceeding 200 libras. The third bell arrived on December 17, weighing 400 libras.

(The journal extracts were translated by Izsák Baán).

Vásárhelyi Anzelm