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Eucharistic Congress Exhibition Pieces Can be Seen in Debrecen

The Ethnographic Museum and the Greek Catholic Ecclesiastical Art Collection opens a joint exhibition in Debrecen.

The Hungarian Greek Catholic Church planned to present a large exhibition in the Műcsarnok (Budapest) on the occasion of the 2020 International Eucharistic Congress. However, due to COVID-19, the event was postponed to 2021. 

Now, some pieces of the exhibition can be seen in the building of the Greek Catholic Metropolitan Office in Debrecen (Debrecen, Petőfi tér 8)  until the 30th of June 2021.

Catholic Metropolitan Office in Debrecen (Debrecen, Petőfi tér 8)

One of the most outstanding pieces of the exhibition is the old altar of the Greek Catholic church of Abaújszolnok, which belongs to the diocese of Miskolc. The work of the unknown Hungarian artisan, carver, and painter was made in the third quarter of the 18th century, and its gable carving was from around 1900. The altarpiece depicts the crucifixion, while King David and the prophet Nathan can be seen on the two side wings.

The other key elements of the exhibition are the pieces of the iconostasis from Magyarkomját (Velyki Komiaty, Ukraine). In 1913, the Greek Catholic parish of Magyarkomját, formerly part of Ugocsa County, sold its Rococo iconostasis to the Budapest Museum of Applied Arts, which was transferred to the Ethnographic Museum in the 1960s.

In 2006, the history of the iconostasis and its scattered pieces had been processed and identified. However, there is still no information about its carvers and painters, it was stated that his artists closely followed the iconostasis of the Uzhhorod cathedral made between 1776 and 1780.

Pursuant to the framework agreement between the Greek Catholic Metropolis and the Ethnographic Museum, the museum lends more than 60 ensembles of the iconostasis of Magyarkomját to the congress exhibition, and then to the Greek Catholic Museum to be built in Nyíregyháza

Other objects that can be seen at the exhibition in Debrecen come from the Greek Catholic churches of North-Eastern Hungary.

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