Journal ARS 46 (2013) 1

Martin ILLÁŠ

K typu predrománskych okien v kaplnke sv. Margity Antiochijskej v Kopčanoch
[To the Type of the Pre-Romanesque Windows in the Chapel of St. Margaret of Antioch in Kopčany]

(Summary)

The Chapel of St. Margaret of Antioch in Kopčany in western Slovakia is by the archaeological research in 2004 – 2007 dated to the period from the 2nd half of the 9th century to the 1st half of the 10th century. The radiocarbon analysis of the wood residues from the cavity in masonry of the chapel dates the building to the year 951 + 60 (i.e. 891 – 1011).

The completely preserved intact primary pre-Romanesque window openings were discovered in the north wall of the chapel. A specific feature of these window openings is the vaulting with the triangular keystone. This method of the window vaulting is basically the only architectural stonework detail of the first construction phase of the chapel, which can be analyzed in style.

The triangular keystone occurs also in the West European pre-Romanesque and Romanesque architecture – in the Carolingian architecture (Germany, Aachen, Aula regia, 788; Corvey Westwork, 873 – 885), Visigothic, Mozarabic and Aragon architecture in Spain and France from the 7th to the 11th century (Melque, Yosa de Broto, Cuxa, Sournia, Espuéndolas, Espierre, Pano, Leyre), Mosan Romanesque architecture in the Netherlands, Flanders and Wallonia in the 11th and 12th century (Gerpinnes, Ghent, Maastricht, Soignies, Nivelles, Ename, Waha, Tohogne, Wierde, Eine), Romanesque architecture in Germany in the 12th century (Wendhausen), Romanesque architecture on the British Islands from the 10th to the 13th century (Bardsey, Inchcolm, Eynhallow, Wyre, Lunda Wick, Innisfallen), Romanesque castle architecture in Austria in the 13th and the 15th century (Niederkraig, Obervoitsberg, Kaisersberg) but also in the Gothic architecture of France, Germany and British Isles (12th – 17th century). It also occurs in Early Gothic architecture in Slovakia (Klátová Nová Ves – Sádok, around 1300).

On the basis of the occurrence of the triangular keystone in the examples of the pre-Romanesque and Romanesque buildings mentioned above, several conclusions can be made:
– the triangular keystone occurs during the whole pre-Romanesque and Romanesque period from the 7th to the 13th century;
– the triangular keystone occurs on a wide territory from the Iberian peninsula to North-West and Central Europe;
– its occurrence on this territory is significantly regionally limited (area of the Iberian peninsula and the Pyrenees, the north area of the Frankish empire or the Holy Roman Empire, the area of the British Isles and Central Europe region);
– despite the wide territory and the long period of its occurrence the triangular keystone was used only in a small number of buildings;
– the triangular keystone occurs mainly in the sacred buildings;
– when used in a building the triangular keystone occurs generally in a greater number;
– the buildings with the triangular keystone had mostly an undressed facework.

The triangular keystone was a special construction design, which probably originated as a simplification of a segmental or trapezoidal form of the keystone to the shape of a triangle, as it is illustrated by the examples of the trapezoidal keystones narrowed to an almost triangular shape (e.g. in Melque, Celles, Gavin).

The reason for using a triangular keystone could not be the static-structural needs or inexperience or poor workmanship of the builders. The most likely cause of the application of this specific form of the keystone is its aesthetic and decorative function. This possibility is illustrated by the fact that most buildings with triangular keystone had an unplastered facework with its structure recognized externally, where mostly the facade elements worked in detail, in this case the keystone in the triangular shape, could stand out. The decorative function of the triangular keystone is undoubtedly demonstrated by its multiple queuing in the scarcement windows and blind arcades (Soignies, Nivelles) and using in the foot of the arch in Eynhallow.

The keystones in the vaulting of the portals, triumphal arches, vaults etc. was connected with symbolism arising from the Holy Scriptures which embodied Christ in them in the parable of “the stone which the builders rejected, and he has become the cornerstone”. The special shape of the triangular keystone could symbolize also the triune God or the number of the days from crucifixion to resurrection of Christ.

The use of the triangular keystone could penetrate Central Europe only from the areas where it occurred in Western Europe, i.e. most likely from the area of the Frankish empire or the Holy Roman Empire, with which the Middle Danube territory had intensive contacts since the beginning of systematic Christianization at the turn of the 8th and the 9th century. The contact with the environment of the Iberian peninsula and the impact of the insular (Anglo-Saxon, Irish, Scottish) architecture and art can be excluded. It is not likely that the use of triangular keystone was autochthonous in Moravia and western Slovakia, where the sacral architecture and Christian symbolism in the 9th – 10th century was entirely a new phenomenon without precedent development.

It is evident that the center of the occurrence of the triangular keystone lies mainly in the 11th century. It is not characteristic for the p re-Romanesque architecture, but it is typical mainly for the early-Romanesque architecture. Only the occurrence of this shape of the keystone in Melque (7th – 8th century), Aachen (788) and Corvey (873 – 885) belongs to the older pre-Romanesque period.

Archaeologically identified dating of the chapel in Kopčany to the 9th – 10th century implies a ques¬tion whether the triangular keystone could be used also in the other pre-Romanesque buildings in the territory of Moravia and western Slovakia. The research of the destroyed churches preserved only in their foundations can’t answer this question. The window construction can be explored only in two surviving pre-Romanesque buildings from the 9th or the 10th century, namely the Church of St. George in Kostoľany pod Tribečom (archaeologically dated at latest to the 1st half of the 11th century; radiocarbon method dates it to the years 703 – 915 or narrower 789 – 902) and the Church of St. George in Nitrianska Blatnica (archaeologically indirectly dated to the 9th – 10th century). The vaulting of their original windows is not made of the radially ordered stones, but by horizontal protruding the thin stone plates in the shape of a vault.

This difference of the design technology of the vaulting may be most likely explained as the consequence of the influence of the environment in which the church was built. The chapel in Kopčany was built in an immediate proximity to one of the central sites in Moravia, the hillfort Valy in Mikulčice, where at least ten churches were built during the 9th century and where the craft activity related with the construction of the churches was concentrated. The churches in Kostoľany pod Tribečom and Nitrianska Blatnica in western Slovakia were built outside the agglomeration of the central site in Nitra, where the building activities also took place during the 9th century and the churches were built. In an environment where the building craftsmen and architects worked, e.g. in the central sites, a more exacting method of vaulting could be commonly used, while in the peripheral areas only a simpler method of construction of the details could be used, depending on the availability of the building craftsmen and the capabilities of the client.

This may imply that the triangular keystone was probably used in one or more churches direct in the center near the chapel in Kopčany e.g. in the hillfort Valy in Mikulčice.

The triangular keystone used in the Chapel of St. Margaret of Antioch in Kopčany is to be regarded as a cultural import from the pre-Romanesque Carolingian architecture or from the area of its later occurrence in the West European early-Romanesque architecture, where it was used in the representative, especially sacral buildings as a structural detail with a decorative function and a special symbolic content.

English translation by M. Jánošík