Saint Martin Church, Feldebrő, Catholic church building in Feldebrő, Hungary.
Saint Martin Church in Feldebrő is a Romanesque church built in the 11th century, originally a 20×20-metre square, five-nave central structure with a tower at its centre. It was rebuilt around 1200 as a three-nave, cross-shaped church, and a Gothic window was opened on the south façade in the 15th century. A crypt with a 20-metre nave and stout, roughly carved column bundles lies beneath it.
Built in the 11th century in Romanesque style, the church was probably commissioned by Aba Samuel, who was buried here after his death. The first building was a square, five-naved central structure with a tower; around 1200 it was rebuilt as a three-naved, cross-shaped church. Gothic windows were opened on the south facade in the 15th century. Antal Grassalkovich funded a major rebuilding in 1743, when the crypt was walled up and the central pillars removed; repairs followed in 1785 and a storm damaged the roof in 1793.
The village church is also known as Szent Márton-templom, and its patronal feast, or kermesse, falls on 11 November, Saint Martin's Day. The building served the Aba clan as a burial church, and the lower church was used for burials. Written records of its construction are entirely missing, so the dedication and the medieval wall paintings are the main evidence of its early use.
The crypt is reached by a staircase and has a nave about 20 metres long, divided by squat, roughly carved column bundles that support the intact stone vault. Small windows connect it with the upper church. The village centre location makes the church easy to find on foot.
The frescoes in the crypt were rediscovered only in the 1870s, when Imre Henszlmann found the central section of the lower church and its painted walls. The 54 figures include Christ among the evangelist symbols and angels in the eastern apse, prophets and apostles in the nave, and a scene of Cain and Abel.
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