The Horiany Rotunda in Uzhhorod: six niches and a riddle of dates

From outside it looks small. Inside it is unexpectedly spacious. The builders of the Horiany Rotunda seem to have known a secret that architects are still looking for: how to make a church larger inside than outside.

In brief

History

The rotunda is often called the oldest building in Zakarpattia, but nobody can say for certain how many centuries old it is. Hungarian researchers, after the restoration of 1911–1912, assigned it to the 10th–11th centuries. Florian Zapletal linked its construction to Prince Koriatovych of Podillia and the 14th century. Volodymyr Sichynskyi argued for a Ukrainian-Byzantine origin of the church; sources report his dating differently — the 10th or the 12th–13th century. Hryhorii Lohvyn assigned the construction to the 13th century and assumed that architects from Galicia took part. There are other versions too — from the 9th century and Great Moravia to the 12th century and the Pauline monks.

In the 14th century a Gothic nave and a sacristy were added to the rotunda, and in the 18th a Baroque bell tower. The church was Roman Catholic. In the 1540s the Drugeths supported the Protestants of Uzhhorod, and according to M. Pryimych it was then that the paintings were covered with new plaster; in 1644 Count György III Drugeth returned to Catholicism. In 1949–1959 Orthodox services were held here.

In May 1959, during a Sunday service, lightning struck the bell tower; according to Visit Uzhhorod, six people were killed. After that the church was closed, and in 1966 a branch of the Zakarpattia Regional Museum of Local History was opened in it. Since 1991 the rotunda has again been an active church of the Greek Catholic Eparchy of Mukachevo. In 2012 the roof was replaced with an authentic wooden one, and in 2019 the dome and windows (Pami.info).

Today the church bears the dedication of the Protection of the Mother of God, while older sources mention a dedication to Saint Anne.

Timeline

The numbers in square brackets are the numbers of the sources in the list at the bottom of the page. The note “according to …” means that the fact is confirmed by only one source. The section “Tradition says” contains traditions and legends: they are recorded in the sources but not confirmed by documents.

Era I. The hill and the beginnings

1. 8th c. BC – 13th c.

   Excavations on the hill revealed three cultural horizons: the Early Iron Age (8th–7th c. BC), the late Roman period (3rd–4th c.) and the Old Rus period (11th–13th c.). According to ^[11].

2. 9th–13th c.

   The date of the rotunda's construction has not been established. Researchers have named the 9th c. (Great Moravia, I. Kral), the 10th c. (V. Sichynskyi), the 10th–11th c. (Hungarian researchers after 1911), the 11th c. (V. Gervers-Molnár), the 12th c. (P. Sova, Pauline monks) and the 13th c. (H. Lohvyn). According to Peniak, most researchers date the church to the late 10th – early 11th c. ^{[1, 2, 9, 10, 11]}

3. 13th c.

   According to M. Pryimych, the rotunda arose as a family chapel, probably of the magnate Aba family; in favour of this is the walled-up Romanesque portal. ^{[3, 14]}

4. 1280s

   According to M. Pryimych, Amadeus (Obo) Aba received the Nevytske estate together with Horiany; in 1288 King Ladislaus IV gave him the county of Ung. According to ^[3].

5. Late 13th c.

   The oldest layer of painting, Romanesque: among the images is St George on horseback; on the drum and the dome are barely visible silhouettes of the apostles. Radio Svoboda calls “George on a horse” the oldest of the 12 frescoes. ^{[3, 4, 7, 14]}

6. 1318

   The Italian Drugeth family, according to Yu. Skakandi, has held the region since this year. According to ^[10].

Era II. The Gothic nave and Italian paintings

1. 1332

   Horiany is first mentioned as “dominium de Gerin” in connection with the building of a new fortress on Castle Hill. According to ^[11].

2. 1334–1335

   In documents Horiany appears as a parish paying the papal tithe (2 groschen). According to ^[3].

3. 14th c.

   A rectangular Gothic nave and a sacristy were added to the rotunda; the rotunda became the sanctuary. ^{[1, 3, 11, 14]}

4. 14th c.

   A proto-Renaissance layer of paintings in the three eastern apses. The style is associated with Giotto's circle. ^{[1, 3, 4, 7, 10, 14]}

5. 1354

   Nicholas I Drugeth, according to M. Pryimych, returned from Italy; the later, Italian layer of paintings is linked with his time. According to ^[3].

6. c. 1367

   H. Lohvyn, according to M. Pryimych, dates the manner of the paintings to after a fire in the rotunda. ^{[3, 14]}

7. Late 14th – 15th c.

   Paintings of the nave and the narthex, Gothic in manner: the Annunciation, the Crucifixion, the Protection of the Mother of God. The manner is close to Czech and German art. ^{[4, 5, 10]}

Era III. The Reformation, Catholics and Greek Catholics

1. 1540s

   The Drugeths supported the Protestants of Uzhhorod; according to M. Pryimych, at this time the paintings were covered with new plaster. ^{[3, 14]}

2. 1644

   Count György III Drugeth returned to Catholicism, and Horiany belonged to the Catholic confession. According to ^[3].

3. 1754

   The administrator of Uzhhorod, Baron Imre Starai, according to J. Kobal, handed the church over to the Greek Catholics. According to ^[3].

4. 18th c.

   A Baroque tower arose on the western part of the church. ^{[13, 14]}

5. 1879

   During repairs to the Church of St Anne, coloured frescoes were found under the plaster. ^{[7, 9, 11, 13, 16]}

Era IV. Restoration, the 20th century and closure

1. 1911–1912

   Restoration; after it researchers were able to examine the masonry. In 1912 the architect Otto Sztehlo gave the nave a gabled roof and the rotunda a separate helmet-shaped roof. ^{[2, 3, 14]}

2. 1921

   M. Novakivskyi writes about Byzantine influence; F. Zapletal assigns the construction to the 14th c. and links it with Prince Koriatovych of Podillia. ^[2]

3. 1929

   V. Sichynskyi's work “Rotundas in Ukraine” was published (Kyiv: Kyiv-Druk, 32 pp.); he was probably the first to draw attention to the material and the masonry. ^[2]

4. 1945

   The Soviet authorities returned the church to the Greek Catholics. According to ^[3].

5. 1949

   The Greek Catholic Church was abolished; the rotunda was handed to an Orthodox community of the Moscow Patriarchate. ^{[3, 12]}

6. 1959

   In May, during a Sunday service, lightning struck the bell tower; the authorities closed the church. According to Visit Uzhhorod, six people were killed. Pami.info explains the closure by water inside. ^{[3, 12, 13, 14, 16]}

7. 1966

   A branch of the Zakarpattia Regional Museum of Local History was opened in the church; the same year, according to rotunda.digital, the frescoes were cleaned and restored. ^{[3, 12, 14]}

8. Late 1960s

   Hungarian researchers (V. Gervers-Molnár) compared the rotunda with Kisombor and Karcsa (Hungary) and dated the group to the 11th c. According to ^[2].

9. 1976

   The village of Horiany was incorporated into Uzhhorod. According to ^[11].

10. 1988–1991

    The Zakarpattia archaeological expedition led by Stepan Peniak investigates the hill: remains of a palatial structure were found, and in its north-eastern corner a tower of roughly 6×5.1 m. ^{[9, 11]}

Era V. The return to worship and digital memory

1. 1991

   The church again became an active Greek Catholic church and belongs to the Greek Catholic Eparchy of Mukachevo; according to Pami.info, it was first returned to the Roman Catholics, who later passed it to the eparchy. ^{[3, 12, 13, 14]}

2. 1996

   The iconostasis was replaced, which opened a wider view of the frescoes; a fourth fresco appeared on the triumphal arch. According to ^[12].

3. 12 January 2007

   After a long repair the rotunda was consecrated. Before that the community had applied exterior “fur-coat” plaster, because of which the walls stopped “breathing” and the frescoes began to deteriorate. The city council installed underfloor heating and built a protective roof; the Hungarian side financed the restoration of the first of the 12 frescoes. According to ^[7].

4. 2010

   Radio Svoboda wrote about rubbish around the rotunda and the threat to the frescoes; Fedir Shandor spoke of an “information vacuum”. According to ^[8].

5. 14 October 2011 – 24 June 2012

   The church was declared a pilgrimage centre (14.10.2011) and twinned with the Roman basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore (21.02.2012). On 24.06.2012 a copy of the icon “Salus Populi Romani”, blessed by Pope Benedict XVI, was solemnly brought in from the cathedral of Uzhhorod. ^{[12, 15, 16]}

6. 2012

   The roof was replaced with an authentic wooden one. According to ^[12].

7. 2019

   The dome and windows were replaced; in June 2019 RISU reported that the dome had been sent for restoration. ^{[2, 12]}

8. 26 September 2021

   Near the rotunda a miniature sculpture “The Rotunda of St Anne” made of andesite was unveiled; the patron Vasyl Homonai, the sculptor Roman Murnyk, the blacksmith Stepan Rusnak, the initiator Fr Bohdan Savula. According to ^[2].

9. 7 May 2024

   The church was raised to a place of indulgence with the title “Eparchial Sanctuary of the Protection of the Most Holy Mother of God” of the Greek Catholic Eparchy of Mukachevo. According to ^[12].

10. 15 September 2024

    For Uzhhorod Day a festive liturgy and a memorial service for fallen soldiers took place in the rotunda; prayers were said for the defenders and for all who have suffered from the war. ^[6]

11. 26 October 2024

    The digital project “Horiany Rotunda. Digital Dimension” was presented (laser scanning and photogrammetry, almost four months of work; a grant from the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation of almost 20,000 euros). The site rotunda.digital contains 3D models, photos and virtual tours. ^{[5, 14]}

Lost and recreated

Architecture

The ensemble consists of three parts: the rotunda, which serves as the sanctuary, the rectangular Gothic nave and the sacristy. The rotunda itself is not round but hexagonal, with smoothed faces. Inside there are six semicircular niches with three windows each (according to Visit Uzhhorod, five have survived).

Below are two elements of the church: in a photo and in a drawing. The drawings show the form, not exact dimensions.

The rotunda with its drum

The rotunda’s walls are 2–2.5 metres thick. The niches are cut into their mass; according to the description by Visit Uzhhorod, five of the six original niches survive, each with three windows (P. Peniak and rotunda.digital describe six niches), while according to Lokalna Istoriia slit-like windows remain in the eastern and south-eastern ones. The rotunda is crowned by a helmet-shaped roof (given to it by O. Sztehlo in 1912) over a hexagonal drum with a dome; on the drum the silhouettes of the apostles are visible. Visit Uzhhorod mentions loopholes in the upper, narrower part and the defensive character of the building; rotunda.digital describes the walls as thick and massive.

The Gothic nave

The rectangular nave was added in the 14th century (according to Visit Uzhhorod, in the 14th–15th). From then on the old rotunda became the sanctuary, and the space for prayer moved into the new Gothic nave. Two styles and two centuries now work as one building.

The frescoes

The paintings were found under plaster in 1879; in 1911–1912 the church was restored to a design by Otto Sztehlo. Among the scenes are the Annunciation, the Flight into Egypt, the Adoration of the Magi, the Passion of Christ and the Last Supper. They are associated with Italian masters of Giotto’s circle; according to one version, the Italian masters were invited by the Drugeths, a family from Naples; Mykhailo Pryimych links the paintings with the return of Nicholas I Drugeth from Italy in 1354. Other researchers speak of itinerant Italian masters who worked in what is now Slovakia. Mykhailo Pryimych dates the paintings of the rotunda to the 13th–14th centuries and those of the nave to the 14th–15th. In 2024 the rotunda was scanned and digitised at the expense of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation; 3D models, photos and virtual tours are available on rotunda.digital.

Stone and material

According to Lokalna Istoriia, the rotunda is built of brick and the Gothic nave of stone. The Ukrainian Wikipedia adds that the material of the walls resembles the masonry of Romanesque castle walls — and it was on this comparison that the Hungarian researchers, after the restoration of 1911, dated the church to the 10th–11th centuries.

A thickness of more than two metres turns a wall from a mere enclosure into a space: niches and window reveals fit inside it. Medieval masters thought of the wall as a volume, not a plane. This logic is still alive today — in the deep niches of chapels and icon cases. Another ancient church whose walls also served defence is the Intercession Church in Sutkivtsi.

Did you know

Tradition says

Figures

• Obo (Amadeus) Aba — a magnate who, according to Pryimych, owned Horiany at the end of the 13th c.; a possible patron.
• Ladislaus IV — the king who in 1288 gave the county of Ung to Aba (according to ^[3]).
• The Drugeths (Nicholas I, György III) — an Italian family, owners of the region from the early 14th c.; the paintings and the later change of confession are linked with them.
• Otto Sztehlo — architect of the restoration of 1912.
• Florian Zapletal — a researcher who assigned the construction to the 14th c.
• Volodymyr Sichynskyi — author of “Rotundas in Ukraine” (1929).
• Hryhorii Lohvyn — a Soviet art historian who dated the rotunda to the 13th c.
• Petro Sova — a Zakarpattia historian, the version of the 12th-century Pauline monks.
• V. Gervers-Molnár — a Hungarian researcher, the comparison with Kisombor and Karcsa.
• Stepan Peniak — leader of the excavations of 1988–1991.
• Mykhailo Pryimych — an art historian, author of the history of the church on rotunda.digital; dates the paintings of the rotunda to the 13th–14th c.
• Mykhailo Syrokhman — an art historian who called the rotunda the third most important monument of early painting in Ukraine after St Sophia of Kyiv and the Church of St Cyril.
• Yulii Skakandi — author of an article on the monumental painting of the rotunda (2023).
• Leonid and Ivan Ilky — authors of the digital project of 2024.
• Bohdan Savula — rector of the church.
• Fedir Shandor — a lecturer at Uzhhorod National University, a promoter of the monument.
• Milan Shashik — bishop of the Greek Catholic Eparchy of Mukachevo, who in 2012 twinned the church with the Roman basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. ^[15]

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