CRITICAL REMARKS ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY ÁRPÁD-PERIOD CHURCHES OF THE TRANSYLVANIAN EPISCOPAL SEE
CRITICAL REMARKS ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY ÁRPÁD-PERIOD CHURCHES OF THE TRANSYLVANIAN EPISCOPAL SEE

Summary/Abstract: Critical Remarks on the Chronology of the Early Árpád-period Churches of the Transylvanian Episcopal See. The predecessor of today’s Gyulafehervár (Alba Iulia) Cathedral was first discovered during its restoration between 1907 and 1917. The three-nave, one-apse church had a rotunda attached to the south side. The study aims to clarify the chronology of the early cathedral by showing that the late eleventh century carvings, which had previously been used as a dating reference, most probably belonged to the rotunda rather than the cathedral, so that nothing rules out the possibility that the episcopal church was built in the early eleventh century. Others agree with the archaeologist who surveyed the area in 2011 that the construction of the small church discovered in the cathedral’s foreground could be linked to a Byzantine mission in the mid-tenth century. In the second half of the eleventh century demolition of this building, which served as a baptistery, may have led to the construction of the rotunda, which also functioned as a baptistery.

• Details
• Contents