(Carmelite) Church of the Immaculate Conception and King St Stephen

The Carmelite monks arrived in Győr in 1697. Their church was built between 1721 and 1725 according to the plans of their lay brother Martin Witwer of Athanasius. The altars and statues were created by the Carmelite brother Dominic. The monastery was completed in 1732.

Lying behind the church’s Italianate facade is a uniquely beautiful, elliptical interior topped with a dome and a square sanctuary. Martino Altomonte painted the high altarpiece with King St Stephen and Prince St Emeric paying homage before the Virgin Mary as well as the paintings of the side altars – the death of St Joseph, the martyrdom of St John of Nepomuk, the heart wound of St Theresa and the transfiguration of St John the Baptist. The earliest part of the building complex, completed in 1718, is a copy of the famous Loreto Chapel, the house of the Holy Family of Nazareth. Above this altar stands a statue of the Saracen Madonna, created in 1717, with the child Jesus in her arms (both their faces are carved from black ebony and they have crowns on their heads). Inside the tiny chapel on its facade is a snow-white Baroque work known as the “Foam Mary”.