Church of St Stephen – Sâncrăieni (Csíkszentkirály)
The Roman Catholic church of Sâncrăieni (Csíkszentkirály) is one of the oldest churches of Lower Ciuc (Alcsík), and the village takes its name from this church dedicated to King St Stephen of Hungary. Surrounded by a stone wall, it is a Gothic church remodelled several times and built on Árpád-era foundations.
The parish is first mentioned in the papal tithe register of 1333, under the name Sancto Rege. The memory of the 13th-century Romanesque church is preserved by the round-arched, grooved stone door frame beneath the tower and by the baptismal font. Excavations in 2007 uncovered the sanctuary wall of the Árpád-era church and, beneath it, graves from the 11th–12th centuries; the building technique of its foundations is so far unique in the Ciuc region.
The present church was built in the second half of the 15th century, and its south portal dates from the 16th century. The tower, long thought to be medieval, was in fact built after 1688 according to dendrochronological analysis. Between 1759 and 1773 the church was heightened and its tower and sanctuary widened; in 1790 a Baroque porch was added in front of the south entrance, its facade bearing an inscription referring to the time of the Turkish war. In 1901 a chapel dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was built onto the church.
When the plaster was removed from the inner north wall of the nave, a medieval mural came to light: it shows the Virgin Mary with the Child Jesus on her arm, together with St Anne and an angel, and probably dates from the late 14th or early 15th century. A late 15th-century Gothic statue of the Virgin, found in the attic in 1930, is now kept in the Székely Museum of Ciuc. The high altar shows an image of the Assumption of the Virgin, beside it the figure of King St Stephen laying the Hungarian crown at the feet of the Virgin Mary.
Pilgrimage feast: the feast is held on 20 August, the day of King St Stephen, patron of the church and the parish.
Visiting: Sâncrăieni lies in Lower Ciuc, about 7 kilometres south of Miercurea Ciuc (Csíkszereda). On the square in front of the church stand a full-length statue of King St Stephen made in 2001 and a memorial to the local victims of the two world wars, while graves of notable villagers lie within the stone enclosure. The stone door frame of the Lord's Chapel (Úr-kápolna) in the cemetery bears the carved date 1528.
Sources: Wikipedia · Archdiocese of Alba Iulia – Csíkszentkirály parish · Wikipedia – Csíkszentkirály (Sâncrăieni)
Photo: Szabi237 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Photo: Szabi237 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Town:
Sâncrăieni (Csíkszentkirály)
