Fertőszentmiklós

Category: Fertőszentmiklós

Church of Bishop St Nicholas

Category: Fertőszentmiklós

The first church of the fishing village on the bank of the Ikva was erected in the honour of Bishop St Nicholas. The small Baroque part of today’s church was built onto the medieval church in 1725. Its facade is decorated with a statue of the Virgin Mary. The orb of its steeple’s cross contains one of the cannonballs from the 1691 Battle of Szalánkemén (Slankamen). Above the twisted pillars of the high altar, angels lift the figure of Mary towards Heaven and the Holy Trinity. Between the pillars, next to the kneeling figure of St Nicholas, there are three children pressed together in a tub in reference to one of the saint’s legends. Statues of saints (John the Baptist, Joseph, Sebastian, Florian, Peter and Paul) stand next to the pillars. The sanctuary window depicts St George the Dragon Slayer.A new large church was built onto this small church in 1935, such that the old church serves as the vestibule to the new one. The backbone of the new church is adorned with a “ridge turret”. Its high altar is made of Fertőrákos sandstone and the old church’s two 18th-century side altars also found their way here.The main figure on the Immaculate Conception Altar is the Virgin Mary. Above it, there is a painting of the Dove of the Holy Spirit, whereas her parents, Joachim and Anna stand next to it. Below, Old Testament saints are closed behind bars waiting for their deliverance.The Mary Magdalen of the Holy Cross Altar is wiping crucified Jesus’s feet with her hair. Below, sufferers in Purgatory are awaiting their redemption amongst the flames.The sanctuary and the ceiling’s frescoes were created by József Samodai in 1964-1965.There is the Esterházy coat-of-arms and a statue of St Nicholas on the pulpit’s sounding board and statues of Christ and the Evangelists on its balustrade.

Category: Fertőszentmiklós

Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows Chapel

Category: Fertőszentmiklós

(Szerdahely) At the end of the 1400s, Gergely Vörös Bezerédj erected the statue of Our Lady in some woodland in the middle of the estate that he had bought from the Nádasdy family; this is where the chapel currently stands. After little more than a century, a bolt of lightning struck the statue during a terrible storm, breaking its supporting pillar into pieces. The rubble buried the statue beneath it, yet the statue remained completely intact. This seemingly miraculous event drew the faithful’s attention to the statue: the residents of the surrounding villages began to make pilgrimages to the statue. At the end of the 19th century, the crutches placed against the surrounding trees testified to the miraculous healing that had taken place at the statue. The statue stood in the open air until 1903, when a beautiful chapel was built from the faithful’s donations. In 1974, the statue was removed from its supporting pillar and placed in the chapel, and the woodland behind the chapel was transformed into an amphitheatre-like park for the pilgrims. This area is now surrounded by a Way of the Cross built in 1980.