Nyíribrony Reformed Church

Nyíribrony Reformed Church

The name of the village of Nyíribrony was first mentioned in a letter of 1305 in the form Ibrun, which derives from the Jewish personal name Abraham. In Arabic and Old Turkic languages it was changed to Ibrahim, and came to Nyírség through the Muslim Besenyaks who settled there in the Árpád era. The medieval presence of the Turkic army is attested to by the name of the village of Besenyőd, which was inhabited in the southern neighbourhood of the settlement before the Tatar invasion. The village was listed in the 1332 papal tithe register as a church, and its church was probably built before the end of the 13th century. 
The exterior of the church in Nyíribrony, with its neoclassical appearance, would not suggest that it is of medieval origin. It was during its restoration that the medieval windows were found. Medieval wall paintings were found under the layers of plaster and later restored. They depict the incomplete figure of a bishop with a shepherd's crook and the figure of Empress Ilona finding the Holy Cross. The same depiction of St. Ilona can be found in the neighbouring Roman Catholic churches of Baktalorantha and Ofehérto.
The church in Nyíribrony began to be used by the Reformed locals in the second half of the 1500s. The Reformed church stands on a small open space on the eastern side of the main street of Ibrony, which runs north-south on an elongated hill. 
A 20-metre high neoclassical tower was built in 1809 in front of the western façade of the church facing the street. The brick architecture, exposed in the one-and-a-half metre sections of wall to the south and north of the tower, is exposed by a loose lime-washed finish, together with the Romanesque double-sawn dentil moulding of the gable. The entrance is on the west façade of the tower, six steps high.  Above the doorway, a circular mullioned window opens between the lisenes, followed by a semicircular mullioned window with a banded frame at the level of the bells. The tower is connected to the nave by an arched gable, with a buttress at the corners of its west façade. The churchyard consists of a single hall, 5 metres wide and 16 metres long. The restoration of the single nave, long nave church has revealed medieval windows in the south aisle and the east side of the sanctuary, also in their original late Romanesque form. First renovated by the Reformed in 1610 and then several times in the 1700s, the nave was covered with plank roofing and a wooden facade was added. It was then that it acquired its present Baroque façade. The beautifully restored pulpit, dating from 1630, may be a remnant of Transylvanian carpentry.
The main attractions of the church of Nyíribrony are the medieval wall paintings found under the plaster layers and restored: the incomplete figure of a bishop with a shepherd's crook and the figure of Empress Ilona finding the Holy Cross. Helena, the Roman general and later wife of the co-emperor Constantine Chlorus, mother of the Byzantine emperor Constantine I (the Great), found and excavated the crucifixes of the Hill of Skulls and the tablet inscribed I N R I I on 14 September 320, according to 'a story that tends to legend'. The crosses recovered from Golgotha could not be identified as to which one Jesus had given his life on, "so Bishop Macarius of Jerusalem touched all three to a terminally ill woman, who was healed by one of them", according to the historical sources. The church of Nyíribrony, which dates back to the 14th century, is therefore of particular value for its frescoes of the time, showing the Empress in a crimson robe holding the cross, crowned with a crown and with the saints surrounding her head.

Nyíribrony, Reformed church (4535 Nyíribrony, (church removed) Hrsz.: 324): 
repair of plaster, replacement of brick floor, 
renovation of the parapets, repair of the plank ceiling, repair and glazing of the parapets and pews, leakproofing around the walls, restoration of the interior and exterior plaster, painting - impregnation of the frescoes to preserve their condition, 
- renovation of the lighting system.


GALÉRIA