Veszprém – St. Michael’s Cathedral

It was damaged from cannon fire in 1704. In the 1720s, there was a major Baroque remodeling (chronogram on the façade 1723, painting 1726) while preserving the Gothic chancel, including the remains of the nave, as a three-aisled, vaulted church without a gallery. There were radical modifications to the chancel screen and a newly created crypt under the nave. The pair of towers on the façade had simple plaster architectural details and were topped with onion dome spires. The undivided side facades had low, semicircular arched windows. By remodeling the southern sacristy around 1762, Márton Padányi Biró constructed a burial chapel for himself on its lower level. He probably painted the crypt as well as installing an altar dedicated to St. Martin, an episcopal throne, and pews. The city square in front of the southern façade was reorganized in 1765 and a Holy Trinity column was erected there. At this time, an antechamber was constructed in front of the entrance on this side. In the 18th century, it served as a parish church, initially staffed by the Franciscans and Piarists. An altar to the Virgin Mary with a tabernacle was constructed in the crypt. In 1769, the bishop Ignác Koller erected a large new marble altar. The altarpiece depicted St. Michael defeating Satan is a copy of Guido Reni’s painting from the 17th century in Rome. The three pairs of side-altars (dedicated to St. George, the Holy Cross, St. Emeric, St. Anna, St. John of Nepomuk, and the Assumption) were rehabilitated during the 19th century through donations from canons. The church was renovated in a uniform Historicist style between 1907 and 1910 (although some furnishings were only renovated after 1912) on orders from the bishop Károly Hornig and according to the plans of the architect Sándor Aigner. The Gothic crypt and the details lost in the apse were reconstructed, and matching Neo-Gothic white marble altars were installed on both levels (by Béla Seenger, the corpus sculpture by Ferenc Velty). The nave was reconstructed in Romanesque Revival style, after demolishing the pillars and the nave walls above them, in part for structural reasons. This was rebuilt with a flat ceiling resembling a columned basilica. The former transept was built with minor projections on the basis of the discovered remains. The Romanesque carvings uncovered during the work were replicated in many places. The main spaces were given uniform Historicist furnishings (in addition to the two main altars, stalls, pews, sedilia for priests, a marble baptismal font and holy water fonts, brass candlesticks and lamp fittings were made by the carpenter Károly Ruprich and other craftspeople), and some of the former side altars were restored and relocated into the aisles. The new altarpieces depicted St. Charles Borromeo and St. Anna (Rudolf Steiner). Along with the architectural remodeling, the cathedral was richly painted with Romanesque Revival palmette foliage, frame ornaments, ancient Christian iconographic references, and figural paintings of the saints from the Árpád dynasty. In addition, stained-glass windows (Gida Waltherr) were made with ornamental carpet patterns, except above the high altar, where the figure of St. Michael is depicted in a painted Neo-Gothic architectural frame as the altarpiece. The organ was made in Ottó Rieger’s workshop. The bells and the copper roof were requisitioned for military purposes in 1916-18. Two confessionals were made around 1917 and two more in 1939. The façade was rehabilitated in 1923, and a carved wooden windbreak was built under the western gallery in 1928. A new St. Emeric altarpiece (Antal Schwarz) was made for the southern side apse and a memorial plaque for the northern aisle for St. Emeric’s anniversary year in 1930. The northeastern windows were damaged due to bombing in 1944. Read less