Bögöz

The settlement

Bögöz (Mugeni, Begesen) is a village in Hargita County, Romania. The Reformed Church of Bögöz is considered one of the most beautiful Hungarian medieval fortified churches in the Udvarhelyszék region. The village is situated 11 km from Székelyudvarhely (Odorheiu Secuiesc), in the widening basin of the central part of the Nagy-Küküllő River, in the Bögözi Basin. Location: https://tinyurl.com/32rdjms3

According to the folklore explanation, the name of the village comes from the words “bő” (wide) and “köz” (a space between two regions), which refers to the location of the village on the fertile valley plain between the two passages of the Bonta and Décsfalvi Straits. Orbán Balázs referred mainly to the data of Pesty Frigyes, who also considered the naming motive of “bő köz” to be the most probable.

Based on another folk etymology, the name of the village may also derive from the fact that it is located between two parallel “mountain ranges”, which narrow at 4 kilometers and block the flow of the Küküllő, and as a result, the accumulated water developed a lot of vapor/steam, which would have given the village the name of “bő gőz” (“gőz” = steam, vapor).

The name Bögöz is not derived from the Hungarian verb “bőg” (weep, howl) or the German “mühlen”. Therefore, the Romanian mirror translation of the village name (Mugeni), which is based on the Romanian verb “muge” meaning ‘bőg’ (weep, howl), is not correct either. According to another theory, the word Bügüz could be a Pessenegh name meaning ‘a pass, a gorge’. The earliest inhabitants of the settlement were probably the Pessenegs, who were quickly Hungarianised by the Székely-Hungarian environment.

Its name was first mentioned in documents in 1333 as Bugus. In 1334 it was called Buguz, in 1486 Begez, in 1505 Bögöz, in 1671 Bőgoz. Its church is one of the most important churches in the Udvarhelyszék Region (Odorheiu), and the one that preserves the most medieval details. In 1992 there were 1025 inhabitants. 1010 of them were Hungarians and 15 Romanians.

The church

The church, which dates back to the 13th century, has wall paintings of the legend of St. László, discovered by Huszka József in 1898. In the church, there is a Hungarian Székely rovan/runic inscription in a mural (of 6 signs) from the middle of the 16th century.

As we said, the Reformed church has 13th-century origins, 14th-century wall paintings, and a painted paneled ceiling from 1724. Its 14th-century murals were discovered in 1865 under a layer of lime. The murals depict the legend of Saint László, the martyrdom of Saint Margit of Antioch, and the Last Judgement, with the glorified Jesus with runic inscriptions around his head. The runic text was found in 1930.

There are no archival sources on its medieval construction history, but during the large-scale interior works carried out in 1965-67, the foundation walls of the former semicircular enclosed sanctuary were found under the sanctuary’s covering. It proves that the church was probably built in the 13th-14th centuries.

The importance of the parish is shown by the fact that in 1333 it was listed as the second richest parish after Keresztúr. In at least two periods, in the early 1300s and the second half of the century, the side walls of the nave were covered with wall paintings, the traces of which can be found on the façade. A major reconstruction took place in the second half of the 15th century when the old sanctuary was demolished and a new one with a ribbed vault was built from the consoles.

It is assumed that the congregation converted to the Reformed religion in the mid-16th century, and the present furnishings of the church were completed only after that time. In 1724, a painted cassette ceiling replaced the ruined vaulting of the nave, and in 1749, with the considerable financial support of Korda György and Borsai Nagy István, the church received a tiled roof and new flooring.

There used to be a chapel 500 meters to the east of the church, and traces of it can still be seen today.

The Murals

Inside, the walls were largely replastered and then painted. A masonry pulpit was then built. In 1842 the “old-fashioned porch tower” was raised by one floor, and in 1865 the tower, weakened by floods, was surrounded by a thick mantle wall and buttresses were added. During these works, a new window was opened in the northern wall of the nave and the murals were found.

During the restoration of the façade in 1995, most of the old plaster was removed, leaving only a small area with the frame ornamentation of the medieval frescoes. It turned out that the buttresses of the Gothic sanctuary had been incorporated into the demolished quoins of the former sanctuary, and we observed traces of drapery and figural details on some of the elements facing outward.

However, during a complete renovation carried out in recent years by Kiss Lóránd, Pál Péter, and their colleagues, a larger composition was discovered on the southern wall of the nave. Today, the only medieval wall paintings in the interior can be found on the west and north walls of the nave, painted in at least two periods.

Its two upper strips must have been made in the first half of the 14th century, with fragments of the legend of St. László at the top and the legend of St. Margaret at the bottom. The panel depicting the battle of the knight-king was badly damaged during the 15th-century vaulting and the 19th-century window opening, but the two panels below are relatively intact. The best-preserved scene is the Last Judgement on the bottom row, which is of great iconographic interest.

This monumental mural composition was discovered by Huszka József in 1898, but its professional restoration was only completed in 2012. This work has also made the fragments of the legend of St. László more comprehensible. The best-preserved image on the western wall is the scene of the Departure, which is unique both in its depiction and its placement. The battle scene on the north wall is relatively more extensive.

This highly eventful, multi-figure composition also contains many unique features. Only a 2 m² fragment of the chase scene has survived, as well as the wrestling scene in which not only the heroes but also their horses fight each other. The decapitation scene is also extremely fragmentary. This is due to the late Gothic vaulting and the opening of the windows in the 19th century.

Sources: https://lovagkiraly.org/helyszin/282-bogoz/?tab=st-laszlo and Hungarian Wikipedia

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Here are many nice pictures of Bögöz: