Page 9 - szabolcs2023
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Where history
comes to life
In Nyírbátor, an important, but smaller town of the county, The Reformed church, intended as a family burial place, is
we can learn the history of a family whose members are con- an outstanding work of art of the late Hungarian Gothic and
troversial personalities: warlords, tyrants, unscrupulous oli- early Renaissance architecture. Hungary’s largest and oldest
garchs, enlightened thinkers, wise rulers, supporters of arts wooden bell tower, the emblematic structure of Nyírbátor
and even persons accused of witchcraft . They are the Báthory stands here with the “Bethlen Bell”, which used to preserve
family, whose history is closely connected to Nyírbátor. Th eir the memory of the two deceased Bethlen children. Th is bell
manor house, built during the 14th and 15th centuries, was is considered to be one of the ten strongest bells in Hungary.
the original building before it was rebuilt and expanded to In addition to its unparalleled artistic value, there is a spe-
become the Báthory castle, where the treaty uniting Transyl- cial story attached to the altar of the Passion of the Minorite
vania and the Kingdom of Hungary was signed. Church. It was ordered by János Nádfőy Krucsay, castle cap-
The famous churches of Nyírbátor - the present-day Re- tain of Kisvárda, the last lord of Hungary with jus gladii and
formed and the Minorite churches - were built as a result of his wife, Borbála Pogány, as an atonement in 1731.
the oath of the victorious warlord of the Battle of Breadfi eld.
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