Visting Churches

Today, May 31, is a cold rainy day in Pecs. Saturday the rain was gentle, but today it is just plain annoying and one can almost imagine there should be a windchill attached to the weather report!

So it seems like a good day to talk about other days.

During May I've been in several churches.

When returning from Transylvania, I checked into my hotel. I called other Fulbrighters in Budapest and soon made a plan to meet Richard and Wendy on Castle Hill. Among other things that afternoon, Wendy and I visited the inside of Matthias Church.

On Saturday, after our Danube Cruise the previous evening, I left the hotel at 8:30 and headed for St. Stephen's Basilica. This is truly an amazing and beautiful church. It is difficult to get a photo that truly shows the huge size of this church.

Here is the front door. Not only is the church open, but there is no fee charged to visit it. Visitors are asked to be very quiet and respect any worshipers.

Here is a view of some of the very many frescos in the church.

This is a view of the altar.

There is a side chapel that holds a hand of St. Stephen. I must confess I was more interested in the way the sunlight came through the windows and made a pattern on the pew cushions.

This Saturday was turning out to be a splendid spring/summer day. Here's the view I saw when I walked out of the church. I had originally planned to go to an art museum, but the day was simply too wonderful to go inside, so I took off walking to the Danube. Near Roosevelt Ter I found the #16 bus and took it over the river to Castle Hill.

There I happened upon the Evangelical (usually in the States we would say Lutheran) Church. One can easily a very different viewpoint on church construction and decoration.

A couple of days later I did a tour of St. Peter's Cathdral/Basilica here. I think it is now a basilica, but it was the Cathedral for so long, that is commonly called the Cathedral by many.

I had been here before to concerts and also did a tour here during International Week earlier in May. This, however, was my first time to have the opportunity to take photos.

When approaching over the Dom Ter, the first thing one sees is the outer gate. From the recent tour I learned this gate is quite new, put up in 2009 to honor the 1000 years of Christianity in Hungary.

Here is a view of some of the detail on the gate. It shows St. Stephan giving authority to build a cathedral in Pecs.

One next comes to the wooden doors with brass reliefs on them. Most every church I have found in Hungary has three sets of doors at the entrance in a U-shape. One never enters the door straight ahead, but rather turns to either the right or left and enters a side door. Perhaps this is a scheme to keep cold and unpleasant air from blowing directly into the church.

This present church is at least 3rd if not the 4th building on this site. This one is highly decorated. Above is an image of the side walls and the decoration on the pillars.

This church is built unlike any other I have seen. The main altar sets above 1/3 the distance from the rear wall of the nave. I hope you can see in the photo that there is a lot of church beyond the altar. During the tour here with others on the International Week I learned the reason. The area from the back of the church to the altar is considered to be the place for "unbelievers" and those studying to be Christian. The area beyond the altar is for "believers."  And if you think the left side of the church looks a bit strange, yes there is scaffolding there for some type of repair.

The ceiling in this church also intrigues me.

So there you have it, a view of several churches in Hungary, each one unique.