Page 9 - SZABOLCS-SZATMÁR-BEREG MEGYE 2022
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Where history
comes to life
In Nyírbátor, an important, but smaller town of the county, fi eld. Th e Reformed church, intended as a family burial
we can learn the history of a family whose members are place, is an outstanding work of art of the late Hungarian
controversial personalities: warlords, tyrants, unscrupu- Gothic and early Renaissance architecture. Hungary’s
lous oligarchs, enlightened thinkers, wise rulers, support- largest and oldest wooden bell tower, the emblematic
ers of arts and even persons accused of witchcraft . Th ey structure of Nyírbátor stands here with the “Bethlen Bell”,
are the Báthory family, whose history is closely connected which used to preserve the memory of the two deceased
to Nyírbátor. Their manor house, built during the 14th Bethlen children. This bell is considered to be one of the
and 15th centuries, was the original building before it ten strongest bells in Hungary.
was rebuilt and expanded to become the Báthory castle, In addition to its unparalleled artistic value, there is a spe-
where the treaty uniting Transylvania and the Kingdom cial story attached to the altar of the Passion of the Mino-
of Hungary was signed. rite Church. It was ordered by János Nádfőy Krucsay,
The famous churches of Nyírbátor - the present-day Re- castle captain of Kisvárda, the last lord of Hungary with
formed and the Minorite churches - were built as a result jus gladii and his wife, Borbála Pogány, as an atonement
of the oath of the victorious warlord of the Battle of Bread- in 1731.
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