A pöstyéni Szent István király-templom és faragványai
The Church of King St. Stephen in Piestany and its carvings

Author(s): Tibor Rostás
Subject(s): Architecture, History of Art
Published by: Pécsi Tudományegyetem Művészeti Kar Művészettörténet Tanszék
Summary/Abstract: The study analyzes the medieval Church of Saint Stephen the King in Piešťany, Slovakia, and examines its surviving architectural sculptures and decorative fragments. The church was probably founded by Palatine Miklós Kont around 1360, as confirmed by a papal indulgence mentioning a newly built church dedicated to Saint Stephen. Archaeological research revealed that the Gothic structure was erected on the remains of an earlier Árpád-period parish church dating from the twelfth or thirteenth century. The building had an unusual two-sanctuary arrangement with diagonally positioned polygonal chancels connected to a vaulted nave. Its architectural details, including rib vaults, tracery windows, sculpted capitals, and decorative corbels, demonstrate a high-quality Gothic artistic tradition. The church was damaged several times during its history, including by lightning in 1772 and flooding in 1813, after which it gradually fell into ruin. Nineteenth-century scholars, especially Baron Alajos Mednyánszky, documented many of the surviving carvings through drawings and descriptions before further destruction occurred. Excavations carried out during the twentieth century clarified the ground plan of the church and uncovered additional fragments of architectural sculpture and earlier building phases. The study identifies and reconstructs the original placement of numerous sculptural elements, including figurative corbels, capitals, keystones, and a richly decorated niche frame connected to the church interior. The author concludes that the Piešťany church represents one of the most remarkable examples of fourteenth-century Gothic architecture and stone carving in the medieval Kingdom of Hungary.

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