Chapel of the Heart of Jesus – Székelyudvarhely
Standing beside the road to Székelykeresztúr, the Chapel of Jesus – formerly the House of Jesus, today the Chapel of the Heart of Jesus – is one of the most unusual monuments of Székelyudvarhely: a small stone building on a four-lobed central plan, surrounded by a low oval stone wall.
It was long dated to the 13th century – Balázs Orbán also saw in it “the character of the 13th century” – but archaeological research in 1973 and 2011 points to an early modern origin; its first written mentions date from the 17th century. In 1702 parish priest István Lakatos wrote of pilgrimages to the chapel and of a spring that healed eye diseases.
According to legend, during the Tatar invasion a Székely warrior prayed to Jesus and shot an arrow from Budvár that pierced the heart of the Tatar khan; the chapel was built on that spot, and tradition links its four-lobed plan to the khan's tent.
Its original painted coffered ceiling of 1677 was removed in 1903; the present ceiling is an early 20th-century imitation. The north apse holds an 18th-century Baroque altar, the west apse a rare wooden statue of St John of Nepomuk holding his hat. Between 2018 and 2021 the chapel was restored with EU and Hungarian government support, revealing the walled-up original entrance, 17th-century graffiti and 18th–19th-century paintings. It was reconsecrated on 11 June 2021.
Visiting: the chapel's feast is held on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart, at Easter the boundary procession gathers here, and from May to October Mass is celebrated on the first Friday of every month. Since its reopening in 2021 it has a permanent caretaker; in the tourist season guided visits can be arranged together with the Haáz Rezső Museum.
Route in the area: Udvarhelyszék Churches Route
Photo: Pasztilla aka Attila Terbócs / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Town:
Székelyudvarhely (Odorheiu Secuiesc)