Debrecen - Calvinist Great Church [antikvár]

The Calvinist Great Church, this magnificent work of the Hungárián neoclassic architecture, even if not the oldest but certainly the most important historic building of the town of Debrecen be-came the symbol of the county seat, which lies in the eastern part of Hungary, in the region of beyond the river Tisza. Both its outer design and its furniture were used as models for building a number of calvinist churches of beyond the Tisza in the 19th century.Debrecen, this 19th century Christian Respublica, inherited a Gothic building in the stately edifice of the former St. Andrew church at the time of the Reformation. But when this church built on 12th century foundations burnt down, in consequence of a fire ravaging the town, together with the College and with a great part of the town in 1802, the cultured and wealthy calvinist inhabitants of Debrecen preserving and following puritán traditions and mani-festing their sympathy for the classicism brought influence in a de-terminative way to bear on the planning of the new church. The calvinist society of Debrecen had aversion from the Baroque and still more from the rococo but identified itself previously with the Renaissance and the classicism.The St. Andrew churchArchivál data document that a church stood already on the place of the present Great Church in the 12th century. Nevertheless this church was destroyed by fire. When the development of the town began, three settlements of the environs were alsó united with it. Then the necessity arose to build a larger church which could hold the increased population. The people and the landowner of the town as well as the bishop of Nagyvárad (today Oradea, Rouma-nia) joined hands in building a new church between 1297-1311. The vauiting of the indeed monumental three nave basilica with Gothic style was held by six carved stone pillars on each side. The chancel was closed by three sides of the octagon. An eight-angled tower was built later to the west entrance of the church.The St. Andrew church existed in its originál form in the town controlled by the Tbrcs until 1564, car it turnéd to ashes on the 6th of September of this year. Besides a carved headstone representing the Lamb of God not any souvenir remained of this church 45 met-res in length and 16 metres in width.More than sixty years passed until one could go to work on re-building the ruined St. Andrew church. The burdens pressing hea-vily on the town - the payment of taxes in two directions, by which