Immaculate Conception Church in Eger, Catholic church in Eger, Hungary
The Franciscan Church of the Immaculate Conception stands at Kossuth Lajos utca 14, its northwest facade on the street framed by two towers and a central projection with a voluted tympanum. The single nave is covered by Bohemian vaults and ends in a straight-closed sanctuary; a gallery runs along the entrance side. A Baroque convent surrounds a square courtyard to the west, its ground-floor arcades later glazed.
On 21 March 1688, three months after Eger was retaken from the Ottomans, chamber commissioner Fischer Mihály gave the friars the former Turkish mosque on what was then Hatvani Street, now Kossuth Lajos Street; excavations in 1988 showed the mosque had been converted from the medieval Saint Demeter church. Baroque construction began in 1701 with the convent-side tower, which housed a bell cast at Kassa in 1705 on the order of Ferenc II Rákóczi. Bishop Erdődy Gábor laid the sanctuary's foundation stone in 1736 and it was consecrated in 1744; the mosque was demolished and the nave built in 1750–1753, with the facade and two towers finished by Nitsmann János in 1772–1776.
Locals call it the "Barátok temploma" (Friars' Church). The Mária Légió has one of its comitium centres here, linked to the Budapest regia, and works closely with the Eger organisation of the English Ladies, whose house stands in the neighbouring block at Kossuth Lajos utca 8. Weddings are held in the church all year round.
The church stands at Kossuth Lajos utca 14, its main entrance facing the street. It is open free of charge throughout the year during opening hours, and weddings are held there all year round. The convent building adjoins the church on the west side.
The 1,500 kg bell in the east tower, tuned to d1, dates from the 19th century and is rarely rung; two other bells once hung beside it, a 191 kg d2 bell and a 42 kg a2 bell, both requisitioned. The stone plaque above the gate carries a chronogram, and the Mater Dolorosa statue at the cross to its right bears another.
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