Árpás is a village in
Győr-Moson-Sopron County,
Hungary
Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...
, on the
Little Hungarian Plain
The Little Hungarian Plain or Little Alföld ( Hungarian: ''Kisalföld'' , Slovak: ''Malá dunajská kotlina'', German: ''Kleine Ungarische Tiefebene'') is a plain (tectonic basin) of approximately 8,000 km² in northwestern Hungary, sout ...
.
Etymology
''Árpás'' means
barley
Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikele ...
in Hungarian, a traditional product of the farms in the area; although today much more vegetables are grown, particularly cucumbers and tomatoes.
Geography, history and landmarks
Árpás village is situated in the north-western part of Hungary, beside the river
Rába
The Rába (; ; ) is a river in southeastern Austria and western Hungary and a right tributary of the Danube.
Geography
Its source is in Austria, some kilometres east of Bruck an der Mur below Heubodenhöhe Hill. It flows through the Austrian ...
, about 30 km from
Győr
Győr ( , ; ; names of European cities in different languages: E-H#G, names in other languages) is the main city of northwest Hungary, the capital of Győr-Moson-Sopron County and Western Transdanubia, Western Transdanubia region, and – halfwa ...
. The bridge of Árpás is an important crossing point on the Rába. The village is built on a bench of the river with hills to the west. It is protected by a levee from the floods. Around the village there are backwater lakes, forests and fields. The municipality of Árpás consists of the village proper, the river section outside the levee, and the surrounding farms, on both sides of the Rába, with some as much as 5 km. away from the village centre.
The village is known for its
Premonstratensian
The Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré (), also known as the Premonstratensians, the Norbertines and, in Britain and Ireland, as the White Canons (from the colour of their habit), is a religious order of canons regular in the Catholic Chur ...
church (''
provostry
A provost is a senior official in a number of Christian churches.
Historical development
The word (Latin for 'set over', from , 'to place in front') was originally applied to any ecclesiastical ruler or dignitary. It was soon more specifical ...
'') named
Saint James. The provostry was founded in 1251 by
Maurice II Pok
Maurice (II) from the kindred Pok (; died 1270) was a Hungarian baron in the 13th century, who served as Master of the treasury from 1262 to 1270. He was a faithful confidant and skilled soldier of King Béla IV of Hungary. The illustrious Meggyes ...
. In 1300 Árpás was the property of Count Lőrinc Cseszneky. The
convent
A convent is an enclosed community of monks, nuns, friars or religious sisters. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community.
The term is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican ...
was inhabited by Premonstratensian nuns from 1526 until 1577. And again, after the Turkish wars,
Poor Clares
The Poor Clares, officially the Order of Saint Clare (Latin language, Latin: ''Ordo Sanctae Clarae''), originally referred to as the Order of Poor Ladies, and also known as the Clarisses or Clarissines, the Minoresses, the Franciscan Clarist Or ...
from
Nagyszombat
Trnava (, , ; , also known by other alternative names) is a city in western Slovakia, to the northeast of Bratislava, on the Trnávka river. It is the capital of the Trnava Region and the Trnava District. It is the seat of a Roman Catholic a ...
resettled the convent. They rebuilt the church on the existing foundations with
baroque style
The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from the early 17th century until the 1750s. It followed Renaissance art and Mannerism and preceded the Rococo (i ...
elements, finishing it in 1751. Later this church became the parish church of the village.
The church is a beautiful example of the brick architecture from the Árpád age. One nave is built and closed with a simple
apse
In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault (architecture), vault or semi-dome, also known as an ' ...
, with two towers on the western side of the church, as it is the case in many churches in Hungary. From the original construction it has a Romanesque western doorway with tympanon.
[A tympanon is a recessed, ornamental space formed by the cornices of a triangular pediment, or in this case between the arch and the lintel of the doorway.] The painting behind the main altar showed a
Madonna with mantle, a rather popular iconographical topic painted around 1660.
In the early 19th century a lot of people emigrated overseas from Árpás.
References
* Ludwig E. (2002–2008): Rejtőzködő Magyarország. MN Online. A sorozat cikke Monoszló templomáról.
* Henszlmann, I. (1876): ''Magyarország ó-keresztyén, román és átmeneti stylü mű-emlékeinek rövid ismertetése'', (Old-Christian, Romanesque and Transitional Style Architecture in Hungary). Királyi Magyar Egyetemi Nyomda, Budapest
* Genthon I. (1959): Magyarország műemlékei. (Architectural Heritage of Hungary). Budapest
* Szőnyi O. (É.n.): Régi magyar templomok. Alte Ungarische Kirchen. Anciennes églises Hongroises. Hungarian Churches of Yore. A Műemlékek Országos Bizottsága. Mirályi Magyar Egyetemi Nyomda, Budapest.
* Gerevich T. (1938): Magyarország románkori emlékei. (Die romanische Denkmäler Ungarns.) Egyetemi nyomda. Budapest
Notes and references
External links
Street map
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arpas
Populated places in Győr-Moson-Sopron County
Romanesque architecture in Hungary