A belfry is a sign that points both to the sky and the people
I would like to share with you a heroic project from the Highlands (Hungarian “Felvidék”), a literally remarkable work of a Hungarian master fireplace builder. He is erecting a bell tower in Izsap (Ižop), which was destroyed by the Turks hundreds of years ago. I dare say he is building a sign of resurrection to tell the world that we, Hungarians in Slovakia, are still alive against all odds. His name is László Vörös, and the following article was written by János Zsolt Szabó from Nyíregyháza, who has joined this work:
The History of the Land and the Tower
As unhistorical as it may seem to ask the question “What if?”, we cannot understand the present events without understanding the significant twists and turns of the past. Over 150 years of Turkish rule have caused incalculable damage. Incalculable, because so many valuable assets were destroyed of which we have no idea today, we can only guess, or of which we have only partial information.
Such is the story of the Church of St Clement (Hungarian: “Kelemen”), one of the oldest of our early churches. Perhaps many would place this church in the area of the Turkish occupation area, but it stood on Izsap in the Highlands in Northern Hungary. It may well have survived the destruction…
Today Izsap is part of the town of Nagymegyer in the Csallóköz region, 10 km from Győr, 20 km from Komárom, and 35 km from Érsekújvár. The settlement was the property of the Koppány family, about whom we have authentic information from a Latin document of 1297. This is the first written record of the village as Isop, but the document also tells us that the Church of St. Clement already existed.
St. Clement
To get a little closer to those times, we need to get to know Pope Clement. Little is known for sure about him, his origins and which successor of St Peter he was are still unclear. Several texts have been attributed to him, but only the letter to the Corinthians has been accepted as a genuine Clementine document.
It was in Kherszon in the Crimea that Clement spent his exile during the persecution of Christians by Emperor Trajan. He and 2,000 other Christians were in forced labor, and they were praying for water. Then a lamb appeared and Clement scraped water with his foot and water sprang up. As a result, the people of the area were baptized. By order of the emperor, an anchor was tied around Clement’s neck and he was thrown into the sea.
Then the sea receded so that they could take his body out of the water.
In 860, the Byzantine Emperor sent the Greek-born brothers Cyril and Methodius on a mission to the Crimea, where they found the remains of St Clement in Kherson and returned to Rome with his relics.
His veneration spread in the area of historical Hungary, especially around Lake Balaton and in Felvidék. This can be explained by the activities of Cyril and Methodius and by the fact that St. Clement is the patron saint of miners, hatters, marble carvers, and sailors, so it was natural that he was regarded as the patron saint of the people living in these areas, whose livelihoods were largely dependent on fishing – in the Csallóköz area, fishing and floodplain farming – and mining.
Almost no other information about the church of St Clement has survived, except that it was destroyed by the Turks in the late 1600s. To determine the date of the destruction of the church and the devastation of the settlement, let us look at the events!
The Turks are coming
On 24 September 1663, Érsekújvár (Nové Zámky, Neuhäus(e)l) was occupied by the Turks. On 10 August 1664, Emperor Leopold I signed the shameful Peace of Vasvár for 20 years. According to the treaty, the Ottomans were allowed to keep Érsekújvár, Nógrád, and Nagyvárad (Oradea) castles even though they had just recently been occupied by the enemy. You can read more details of the Battle of Szentgotthárd and the Peace of Vasvár here: https://www.hungarianottomanwars.com/1606-1717/1-august-1664-the-battle-of-szentgotthard-saint-gotthard/
After two decades, in 1682, Sultan IV Mehmed refused to renew the Peace of Vasvár and on 6 August 1682 the Sultan decided to launch a major military operation. On 21 January 1683, the Ottoman army began to assemble in Nándorfehérvár (Belgrade).
The plan was to fortify Érsekújvár and to take Komárom and Győr. As we know from the records, Izsap belonged to the castle of Komárom, so it was unlikely that the Turks had ravaged it at that time. The campaign began in May.
On the 6th of November 1683, Hoffkirchen, the captain of the castle of Komárom, sent a letter to Nagymegyer declaring it a protectorate, after the town had been almost completely destroyed by the Turks. The liberation of Érsekújvár took place on 2 September 1686. The Peace of Karlóca was signed in 1699. The period of the sack of Izsap can be dated from May 1683 to 6 November 1683.
The big question is why the church was destroyed by the Turks and why there are no more substantial and known records of the church for about 4 centuries between 1297 and 1683. Interesting fact: the feast day of Saint Clement is 23 November. According to some sources, Kinizsi Pál, the famous hero of the Ottoman wars, died the day after St. Clement’s Day in a town called St. Clement near the Sava River.
Life after the Ottoman age
Starting over is always difficult. Fishing, which was the region’s main source of income, also meant that from time to time the inhabitants had to deal with floods and inland waterways. And because of the proximity of Nagymegyer, the Catholics were unable and unwilling to donate their already meager resources to a new church. In 1853 a bell was consecrated by the Catholics in Izsap, but all denominations took part in the ceremony.
It is not known what happened to these bells. It is possible that they fell victim to the Great War when bells were collected for the army. This theory is supported by the fact that the Komárom bell founder Jakab Dosztál cast two bells for Izsap in 1924. The former wooden belfry was reduced to ashes, and during the communist era, it was replaced by an iron belfry.
The resurrection of the bell tower
Another thread of the story began in 2019 when I learned that a master mason from the Highlands had started work on a Trianon memorial. I contacted László Vörös and we conducted an interview and started a fundraising campaign. The “working relationship” turned into a friendship spanning Nyíregyháza and Izsap, and the monument was handed over, closing a chapter. Everyone did their part, and in 2021 we spoke to László again, he told us about the works he had handed over since then (“70 years in Hungarian” – a monument, Stations of the Cross, a Holy Cross, benches with quotations, etc…) and that he had a new dream; he wanted to build a worthy bell tower to replace the bell tower in the center of the village for the 100th anniversary of the casting of the bells.
It was then that he mentioned St Clement, who once had a church in the village. It was a seemingly impossible project, and that fact made me all the better to say yes to working together again and to start achieving the impossible. In the following interview with László, we appealed to the people. A civil engineer, who knew the village and László’s work well, answered our call and offered to design and manufacture the structural elements and paid for the cost of the construction.
This is Ottó Csiba, who has a lot of experience and who is helping us with the construction of the bell tower. The architectural plans were drawn up by Zoltán Pintér. But there were other aspects to this seemingly impossible task that had to be tackled because sometimes we could only stand there in bewilderment.
László, when he is not building monuments, he makes fireplaces. He was once approached by a lady from Komárom who wanted to have a tiled stove built. László, who does not deal with this kind of work, recommended another specialist and, seizing the opportunity, asked the lady if, being from Komárom, she knew anyone who might be able to help him find descendants of the Dosztál family. “There you are, I’m the granddaughter of Jakab Dosztál!” – came the reply. That is how he got to know the records of the famous bellmaker, in which we learned useful things about the bells he had cast. Experts came to our side, and also supporters, some with small, some with big, who contributed to the work.
The concrete structural elements have been poured and the reinforcing steel has been purchased. With a donation, 6000 bricks from the ruins of an old county farm building were donated and cleaned by volunteers. We also managed to buy a plot of land in the center of the village next to the Community Centre.
László also made the cross to be placed at the top of the tower. Although a lot has been achieved, the list is far from complete. The plan is to create a common, open, and unified space with the Community Centre. The plans have been drawn up, the necessary documents have been completed and we are now ready to apply for planning permission. We don’t know when we will be able to start building, but once we have the permission we hope to do it this year.
We have created a page where you can follow the construction of the St Clement’s Bell Tower. We also started researching the history of Izsap and the Church of St. Clement. Our aim is not only to build the bell tower but also to create an inspiration for people to show the power of working together to make dreams come true. So we believe that it is not a naive idea in a world that is losing its values. We need such bastions, even if others deny their roots.
Please help us as much as you can and follow us on the St Clement’s Bell Tower Facebook page if you care about our mission: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61552680010937
