The stalls of Nyírbátor

The old furnishings of the church included two magnificent rows of pews, one part of which can be found today in the National Museum, the other in the Bathory István Museum. One of the stalls in Nyírbátor has 14, the other has 12 stalls. The first is closed by a row of pews, which are attached to the funeral pyre, the other has no pews. The two aisles of the larger back pew are perpendicular, and this requires a similarly positioned wall section. All this confirms the assumption that the stalls were originally prepared for the Minorite church, since there was never a triumphal arch in the Reformed church. The pews, the seating area and the ceiling are covered with an exceptionally rich carved decoration of plants and figures. The ends of the volutes delimiting the seating areas are topped with rosettes. Similarly lavish carvings appear on the cornice, the frieze of which features a row of dolphins interspersed with acanthus flowers and leaves. The panels at the foot of the first row of seats and the fields between the headboards of the back row are covered in extraordinarily varied inlay. In addition to the ornamental, linear decorations of the same shape, in the back row, there is the Bathor coat of arms floating on a candelabra held by a pair of putti, a plaque behind four differently arranged open cabinet doors, and a cassette inscription above the first row of the perpendicular section. This mentions the makers of the backbench, the master of the horse György Báthori, the ispán of Temes, the captain-general of the southern provinces, and András, the ispán of Szatmár and Szabolcs. At the same time, it gives the date of construction (1511) and the name of its maker (Roberto Marone). It is already unique in our country today. The furniture comes from the famous Renaissance carpentry workshop on the Via dei Servi in ​​Florence.

The Reformed Church of Nyírbátor is unique in many ways, but it does not stand in isolation in the contemporary Hungarian architectural art. Above all, both in its spatial design and in its details, it is closely related to the Franciscan architectural practice of the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries. In this regard, not only the Minorite church built at the same time can be cited, but also the Farkas Street church in Kolozsvár, built between 1489 and 1503, and the Franciscan church in Szeged, rebuilt around 1503. The spatial composition, but also the agreement of the individual details, reinforce the assumption that the same building and the same stonemasonry workshop operated in Cluj and Năvodari. The mentioned churches of the three cities are also connected by the fact that each of them was directly connected to the royal court. The construction of the Farkas Street church in Kolozsvári, a royal city of Szeged, was begun by King Matthias and was supported by his successor, Illuszló II. István Báthory was not only a relative of the king on his maternal side, but as the voivode and national judge of Transylvania, he was also one of the highest-ranking lords of the kingdom. The Renaissance details of all three churches show many similarities with the castle of Visegrád, and it can be rightly assumed that the churches of Nyírbátor were also built by royal architects.