Veszprém – Church of St. Stephen

The church consists of a short nave and an apse with a square end that is narrower than the nave. There is a tower on the southern side street-front façade at the end of the nave. The eastern, street-front main façade has a stone-framed Baroque portal surrounded by volutes and has a segmented arch at the top that was made in the last quarter of the 18th century. Above is an inset transom tympanum with dental molding that contains an eye-of-God motif supported by consoles with drop decorations. The fenestration in the Romanesque Revival style includes two narrow arched windows on either side of a large round window. There are three slit openings in the gable and above this is a niche. There is a false arcade running below the peak of the gable. The southern façade of the church is unarticulated but has arched windows. The church is covered in a barrel vault that is three bays long in the nave and two in the chancel. The walls are divided by pillars. The end of the nave near the entrance is occupied by an organ gallery with a protruding balustrade resting on a single basket-handle arch. The nave also has windows opening towards the monastery. The highly elongated main altar and the side altars are in the Late Baroque style. The high altar is surrounded by the gilded, white sculptures of St. Ladislaus and St. Emeric standing on consoles over the doors. The altarpiece is surrounded by pillars and depicts the offering of the crown. The gilded door of the tabernacle niche depicts the supper at Emmaus. There is an altar of St. Francis on the left of the chancel arch, next to the pulpit, and an altar of St. Anthony on the right side. The altarpiece of the St. Francis altar is of Italian origin and was acquired from the Budapest Franciscan friary abolished by Joseph II. The paintings of the vaulting were made by Xavér Ferenc Bucher between 1798 and 1801 and the gilding work was done by Ferenc Schitterson. The mural paintings were repainted in 1936. There are depictions of the Holy Trinity in the apse, St, Stephen and his ambassadors returning from Rome in the nave, St. Emeric praying to the Madonna over the gallery, Moses and the burning bush on the surbased sail vault supporting the gallery, musical instruments in the middle of the balustrade decorated with painted stone latticework, painted drapery on the side wall, and a painted door on the southern side of the apse opposite the decorative iron lattice. The sacristy houses a Baroque sculpture of St. Anthony. A chapel dedicated to St. John opens to the right of the nave. Read less