Baroque Sculpture Hall

In the sculpture hall figures of the Holy Trinity group erected outside Matthias Church in Buda Castle in 1712 can be seen together with statues and reliefs adorning 19th century neo-classical building in Pest-Buda. Upon the Jesuits’ encouragement, the city fathers decided to erect a Holy Trinity column on public contributions, to prevent the spread of the plague brought back by the soldiers returning from the anti-Ottoman wars. A few years after the unveiling of the sculptural group, the plague hit again, so the municipality decided to erect an even larger monument. Part of the former edifice can be seen in Zsigmond square in Buda today. The ecclesiastic inauguration of the second monument was in 1713, with 15 statues added subsequently. In the lowermost tier the allegorical figures of the virtues and angels guiding Man through life were shown, the middle tier included the interceder Holy Virgin and her helpers, the saints John the Baptist, Francis Xavier, Christopher, Joseph, Roch, Sebastian, John of Nepomuk and Augustine, whose statues are on display in the museum. At some places they still show traces of the original red, green, yellow, blue and lead white paint as well as of the gold and silver foil once adorning them.

Photo: János Gehring