Az esztergomi főszékesegyház és egyházkormányzati központ építészeti koncepciójának kialakulása és változásai
Authors: Horogszegi Tamás 
Published: November 2024

The plans of the ecclesiastical complex drafted in the 1820s were based on certain 18th century antecedents. The death of Archbishop Ferenc Barkóczy (1761–1765) in 1765 interrupted the constructions started on plans by Franz Anton Hillebrandt (1719–1797). The retransfer of the archiepiscopal see from Nagyszombat to Esztergom was not possible for more than another half a century, until the archiepiscopacy of Sándor Rudnay (1819–1831) (Fig. 1).

So as to reconstruct the evolution of the 19th century conceptions, all the extant and accessible plan material must be put to meticulous analysis – to continue the work of the scholarly predecessors interested in the building history of the basilica (Antal Leopold, Gyula Edvi Illés, Gyula Prokopp) and to complement their observations and findings. The collation and examination of the – not always signed and dated – plans kept in diverse collections (Vienna, Esztergom and Budapest) are also necessary to try and establish their chronological order. Luckily, the dated sheets and the earlier and still ongoing processing of the sources provide several clues that allow us to infer the time line and the changes in the architectural ideas. The paper makes an attempt to reconstruct the formation of architectural ideas on the basis of the most detailed study of plans drafted between 1820 and 1822.

The 18th century spatial layout of the required buildings of the ecclesiastical government was kept unchanged: the cathedral is located on Castle Hill framed on the west overlooking the Danube, and on two sides by wings of the archiepiscopal palace. A monumental wide ramp leads to Castle Hill on the east lined on either side by the residences of the members of the cathedral chapter, enclosing the open place formed at the eastern, lower part of the ramp. The clergy’s seminaries are also situated east of Castle Hill. The 18th century idea of the disposition of the buildings – expressing their hierarchy as well – was accepted by the 19th century posterity, but the appearance of the individual buildings was modified according to the new style.

Archbishop Rudnay gave the commission of planning to Ludwig von Remy (1776–1856), the office director of the imperial and royal architectural office (Hofbauamt) of Vienna in May 1920, endorsed by Emperor and King of Hungary Francis I on 27 July 1820. The series of Remy’s Esztergom plans preserved in the Albertina has been enlarged in the past fifty years or so (Figs 2–14), hence we have a far larger basis to examine his architectural ideas than Gyula Prokopp had in the early 1970s. /The (incomplete) series of Remy’s plan drawings for Esztergom is found in the Albertina, which has been extended since Prokopp’s time./ The architect inspired by the spirit of triumphal neoclassicism must have been attracted by the urban scale of the commission. He drafted several versions of the buildings under Castle Hill. There is no knowing whether a site plan of all the buildings had been drafted, as it is missing from the Albertina series, so we can only hypothetically attempt to reconstruct his idea on the basis of available details (Fig. 15).

Pál Kühnel (1765–1824) had a draughtsman’s role, especially in the early phase of the completion of Remy’s plans. However, soon he also began negotiating with Archbishop Rudnay and started making separate plans. Of course, by that time he had a good overview of Remy’s architectural ideas and could perform his drawing on their basis. Rudnay did not want rivalry between the two architects and hoped for their cooperation on a common plan. The Viennese official refrained from competing with his employee, so he withdrew from the commission, without handing over his plans completed by the beginning of 1821. Although Rudnay could not get to know Remy’s plans, they could still influence further planning through the collaboration of Kühnel and constitute an important station toward the plan to be implemented.

Thus, the commission of planning passed on to Kühnel, who completed the first set of plan drawings (Figs 16–24) by March 1821. Not all the – once probably existing – plans of the series are known today. He already sketched up several versions for the canons’ houses financed by the members of the chapter (Figs 23–24) in 1820. Among that-time plans of the cathedral, the perspectival view of the interior of the basilica is particularly attractive (Fig. 18).

Apart from the site plan drawing of Kühnel’s first plan series (Fig. 16), he also made two site plan variants (Figs 25–26), which were more adjusted to the terrain features of Castle Hill than the conception detailed on the sheets of the cathedral and the primatial palace. On these plan versions the building complex on Castle Hill is arranged in a trapezoid form: the lateral wings of the archiepiscopal palace converge westward – with different solutions on the two sketches. The four wings of both seminary buildings arranged around a square court are nearly identical in the two plan versions, while the canons’ residences are different: in one they have L-shaped ground-plan, in the other the auxiliary buildings are laid out parallel with the residences, thus separating the garden from the court.

The plans and written sources suggest that the client did not have mature ideas about the canons’ nursing section at that time. Kühnel designed several optional residence buildings for the canons in 1820 and 1821 with various ground-plans and one or two storeys (Fig. 27–30). His contract included the planning of 22 dwelling houses, which was later extended on the eastern end of the curving row of houses with two buildings, the library and the archives. It was also an important consideration to incorporate some of the foundation walls surviving from the constructions during Archbishop Ferenc Barkóczy.

In spring 1821 Kühnel drafted another series of plans. In the second series the ensemble on Castle Hill became more spacious and airy: the lateral wings of the archie-piscopal palace are shortened and do not turn eastward; they are linked to the cathedral with curving colonnades. The ground-plan of the cathedral also became more rational. The renaissance Bakócz Chapel attached to the cathedral with a kind of corridor in earlier plans got better integrated in the mass of the cathedral. In this plan series the crypt was to have been in the western side of the ba-silica, under the sanctuary zone (Figs 34–35). The number of the canons’ houses in the straight rows increased from five to six, therefore the curving row of house closing the ensemble on the east received the buildings of the library and the archives at its ends. North of the northern straight line of canons’ houses a new building of large floor space appeared in the site plan (Fig. 31): most probably for storage, offices and stables needed by the monumental building project.

The construction of the cathedral was launched on the basis of plans created in this phase of planning (Fig. 36) with the laying of the foundation stone on 23 April 1822 – but shortly afterwards the plans had to be modified. That, however, will be the subject of a further paper.