Past and present for the future in Magyarlóna 1 - a history of a Transylvanian village research

The church of Magyarlóna (Kalotaszeg) has close stylistic connections with one in Szászfenes. Important medieval frescos have been found on the southern section of the wall of the chancel arch. In the 18 th century, the church’s interior was entirely transformed to suit the new age and the world of the Reformation. The joiner and painter Lőrinc Umling first worked there in 1750, where he constructed the crown-shaped pulpit canopy. In 1752, the master craftsman created the painted ceiling (one hundred and twenty panels) of the church. In 1768, Umling, together with his sons, painted the church pews. This Transylvanian church and its values are not current in the thoughts of the Hungarian history of art. To appreciate the inner values and consider the painted woodwork as a unique chapter of our architecture, it is necessary to look more deeply into this Hungarian settlement and the origins of the local culture.

The inhabitants of the villages in the region of Ţara Călatei in Romania are predominantly Hungarian. Although their numbers are declining, there are still single nationality Hungarian villages as well as mixed communities and a few single nationality Romanian villages dotted here and there. This region, known as Kalotaszeg in Hungarian, is important from the aspect of Hungarian ethnography as its people have their own distinctive culture, and with regards to religion, the residents of all but three villages follow the Reformed faith. Today, the Kalotaszeg region refers to the area to the west of Cluj, which is bound by the Vladeasa Mountains, the eastern Meses Mountains and the northern Gilău Mountains. It is divided into three clearly defined, independent areas: the higher-lying Felszeg that is enclosed by the Gilău Mountains and the rivers Cris and Călata; the lower-lying Alszeg around the river Almas, and the area flanking the river Nadăș (Nádasmente). Adjoining this fairly enclosed area lying in an east-west direction, there is a thin spur of land with a few villages between Gilău and Iara, which ethnographically also belong to Kalotaszeg.
One of the forty-three villages in Kalotaszeg is Magyarlóna or Lóna for short. The village is situated in a river valley and was regarded as the hub for the rest of Kalotaszeg, for the villages lying to the south and south-east. (Fig.1.)   1652, before becoming Magyarlóna around 1910. In Romanian, it used to be called Lona and then Lona Săsească before acquiring its present name Luna de Sus, meaning the moon above, at the end of the 1920s. Like most villages in Transylvania, it also had a German name, Sächsischlone or Deutschdorf. The surrounding place names suggest that in the 9 th century, at the time the Magyars settled here, there was a sparse Slavic population in this area.
Lóna was first mentioned in a medieval charter in 1298, when its ownership was transferred from Ban Mikud of Nógrád   The church may have been built at the behest of Bishop András Szécsi, who lived in the first half of the 14th century. The church in Lóna has close stylistic connections with one in Szászfenes. (Fig.2.) The nave of the Gothic church probably had a wooden roof. The Gothic vaulting has not survived in the apse, but its structure can be deduced from the buttresses and the remaining traces of the imposts. Medieval frescoes have been found on the southern section of the wall of the chancel arch. (Fig.3.)The entire height of this wall was painted in three bands, as was the north wall. In the uppermost band to the left of the chancel arch is most probably one of the last scenes of a narrative composition begun on the north wall. The female figure depicted in the top fresco may be the martyr Saint Agatha. Firm evidence of the martyr's identity may only be gained from the other scenes of the legend, which are presumably on the north wall. (Fig.5.) Narrative renditions of legends about saints were an Italian speciality, encouraged by the Franciscans, in Gothic Hungarian painting. Beneath the top section, the Annunciation is portrayed showing the half-exposed, stiff figure of Mary to the right and the Archangel Gabriel to the left with a battlement and a tower in the background. 2,3 In the lower fresco on the other side of the arch are two unidentifiable figures. The one on the left is a bishop wearing a mitre and holding a crosier. The right-hand figure holding a book may be an evangelist or apostle. The basic style of the frescoes is highly provincial linear Gothic to which the painter has added numerous elements from the Italo-Byzantine tradition. (Fig.4.) The frescos were probably painted not long after the church was completed. During the Reformation, the church and the local people were first Lutheran (in 1560), becoming Calvinist in 1564. That the Reformed faith supplanted Evangelicalism as the dominant religion suggests that a great number of Saxons who settled here assimilated with the Hungarianised inhabitants or the remaining Hungarian population after the Mongol invasion. In world terms, religious freedom was first proclaimed in Transylvania at the Diet of Torda in 1568; this ordered that no one could be persecuted for their religious views. The sweeping change ushered in an important period in the church's architectural history, and in 1601, the Reformed rectory was built.
In the 18 th century, the church's interior was entirely transformed to suit the new age and the world of the Reformation in Kalotaszeg. The old cabinetmakers of the region created a high standard, distinctive decorative style. The joiner and painter Lőrinc Umling first worked in Szászlóna in 1750, when he produced his most significant work, the crown-shaped pulpit canopy [6, p. 66] In 1752, the master craftsman completed one of his most successful works, the painted ceiling of the Reformed church in Lóna 4 with one hundred and twenty panels. 5 The front of the western, men's gallery has nine panels, below them is a horizontal board with an undulating lower edge bearing an inscription. The three central panels are adorned with pink flowers in Italian vases in a Renaissance frame. A delightful detail is the abundant leafage and floral decoration on the stairs of the western gallery. In 1768, Umling together with his sons was employed for another task, painting the pews of the church [5, pp. 81-87]. Unfortunately, little can be seen of this today as the decoration, mainly on the front of the pews, has worn away. The work of the Umling family endows the interior of the church in Magyarlóna with a marvellous unity. 6 (Fig.6.)(Fig.7.)   The bell, which was cast during the reign of King Matthias in 1482, originally hung in a separate bell tower [1, p. 299]. The construction of the tower standing now began in 1799 under the direction of the master builder József Léder, who gained a reputation as one of the most important proponents of neoclassical architecture in Kolozsvár (Cluj). The organ was made in Nagyvárad in 1826. In the same year, a carpenter from Kolozsvár, József Pesthi, constructed the gallery on the eastern side; the organ was situated here until it was moved to its current position in 1896 [7]. The carved wooden gates of the churchyard that can be seen today were inscribed with the year they were made, 1935, when the gates that had stood there since 1848 were replaced. 7 In keeping with tradition, the people of the village were buried in the churchyard from the Middle Ages onwards.
Headstones from the end of the 18th century still stand around the church, for example, one from 1794 and another from 1798, which is inscribed with a metric poem.
In 1805, burial in the churchyard was prohibited for reasons of hygiene and a cemetery on the outskirts of the village was used from then on. The cemetery, must have existed prior to this date because the earliest headstone still standing today is dated 1803, and there is a record of a 1772 tombstone inscription. Reformed, Baptist and Roma residents buried their dead in separate sections all in the same cemetery. The graves did not have a built edge and their precise places have been obscured by time. The practice of clearly defining graves only developed in the modern era in the 1960s and 1970s, since when the neat rows in the lower sections have reflected the regimented customs of burial.
By the 1700s, gravestones in the form of a slab with a dripstone similar to those in Magyarlóna were widespread in neighbouring villages. Later changes in tombstone fashion followed the belated appearance of middle class taste. Alongside rural craftsmanship, the vocabulary of classical shapes of the trained mason became increasingly common.
Headstones with decorations painted in blue, yellow, green and red bestow aspects of folk art on the cemetery [4]. (Fig. 8.) Motifs similar to those in embroidery, folk costumes and painted furniture that were enjoying their heyday, appeared on the gravestones towards the end of the 19th century, when the "decorative taste", admired today as folk art, found new strength and blossomed [3, p. 93]. The folk costumes of unrivalled richness that accompanied the people who lived here from birth until death, also recall this world. The villagers are still proud of their costumes today, and women and girls frequently wear traditional festive attire. 8 The people of Kalotaszeg can recognise which village someone comes from based on their folk costume. As elsewhere in the region, the pearl headdress that is worn by girls from confirmation until marriage is also present in Magyarlóna. The other distinctive feature of the regional costume is the "bagazia", a finely pleated skirt, which is folded up at the front.
The Magyarlóna church is one of the finest examples of the ecclesiastical architecture of Kalotaszeg. Today, it relates to the visitor its seven to eight hundred years of history and proclaims the prestigious culture of the people who live here. The history of the village, the historical connections, the old stones of the cemetery and the traditional costumes together represents the values that originate from the Hungarian past and the Transylvanian identity.