St Nicholas Church – Odorheiu Secuiesc (Székelyudvarhely)
Standing on St Nicholas Hill in the south-eastern part of the town, this Baroque church belongs to the oldest Catholic parish of Odorheiu Secuiesc (Székelyudvarhely) and is one of the town's most important monuments. Its 40-metre tower is a defining feature of the townscape.
The first written record of the parish dates from the first half of the 14th century, when its priest Stephen (Stephanus sacerdos de Udvorhel) was listed in the papal tithe register. During the Reformation the Catholics lost their church – it was taken over by the Reformed community in 1612 – and only got it back in 1633. The Jesuits, who arrived in the town in 1592, founded a school and ran the parish of St Nicholas until the order was dissolved in 1773.
The medieval church was badly damaged during the Ottoman and Tatar devastation of 1661, and its condition deteriorated further in the 18th century. On the initiative of the parish priest Ferenc Kadicsfalvi Török, work on a new church began in 1787, and it was consecrated in 1793 by Ignác Batthyány, Bishop of Transylvania. The door frame of the sacristy probably survives from the old church.
The church, 38 metres long and 18 metres wide, has three aisles: pillars separate the wide nave from the narrower side aisles with their galleries, and above the nave runs a flat wooden false vault, a type popular in the late 18th century, decorated with gilded stucco cartouches. The white-and-gold furnishings come from the workshop of the Cluj (Kolozsvár) sculptor Simon Hoffmayer. The St Nicholas altarpiece of the high altar was painted by Mátyás Veres of Cluj; the altar is adorned with statues of the four evangelists and four Jesuit saints – Ignatius of Loyola, Francis Xavier, Francis Borgia and Stanislaus Kostka.
The four side altars and the pulpit mounted on one of the pillars are also works of the Hoffmayer workshop; the composition of the pulpit is identical to those in the cathedral of Alba Iulia and the Armenian church of Gherla. The organ, with three symmetrically arranged cases, was built in 1879 by István Kolonics, an organ builder from Târgu Secuiesc (Kézdivásárhely).
Visiting: the church stands on St Nicholas Hill, on Baróti Szabó Dávid Street, next to the parish house and the former Catholic grammar school, today the Tamási Áron High School. For Mass times, check with the St Nicholas parish.
Sources: Wikipedia (Romanian) · Archdiocese of Alba Iulia – Székelyudvarhely St Nicholas Parish I · Explore Carpathia · Visit Harghita
Photo: Andrei kokelburg / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 ro · Photo: Țetcu Mircea Rareș / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Town:
Odorheiu Secuiesc (Székelyudvarhely)
