St. Mary at Bapska — Thirty-Five Years Later

Autor obrađuje romaničku fazu crkve Sv. Marije u Bapskoj, te komparativnom analizom određuje njezino mjesto unutar arhitekture velike srednjovjekovne migracije "Sasa". Ključnu ulogu igra uzorno izvedeni dekor najstarijeg dijela crkve, za koji se predlažu usporedbe u donjorajnskom području uz Sjeverno more (Frizija, Groningen, Drente). Prisustvo "hospita" s donjonjemačkog područja dokumentirano je u Vukovaru u prvoj polovici 13. st., u koje se vrijeme može datirati i crkva u Bapskoj.The object of this study is the church of St. Mary at Bapska, a village east of Vukovar on the slope of the Fruška gora mountain. The church contains an easily recognizable Romanesque part — the rounded apse and the eastern section of a single nave. The Romanesque phase of this brick church is distinguished by carefully executed decoration consisting of a base cornice, a string course made of bricks forming a zig-zag line placed on quarter-circle brackets, and a string or diamond beads. The restoration in 1977 has established two later (Gothic) medieval phases, and additional work in the period after the expulsion of the Turks (ca. 1700 and later). The decor of the oldest section was neatly restored and a number of old windows were reopened —leaving us with some questions as to the earliest history of the church, i.e., a possibility of two Romanesque phases, the original one around 1200 with repairs after the Tartar invasion of 1242. The decor of the church, quite unique within continental Croatia, could be seen as typical of Romanesque brick architecture, but one is struck by analogies with the rural architecture of the Lower Rhine area (Friesland, Groningen, Drente). One should note the presence of the "hospites" from the Lower German area in Vukovar in the first half of the 13 century, who dedicated their church "in suburbio castri Walkow" to St. Lambert, a typically Lower Rhine saint. This is the only church of St. Lambert in Croatia. There is also a village of Sase ("The Saxons") on the Fruška gora Mountain near Slankamen. As it seems to be the case of some other Romanesque churches in Eastern Slavonia, distinct features of St. Mary at Bapska seem to owe their form to far-away models in the lands which provided much of the manpower to the great colonization movement within the "Renaissance of the 12 century." Those "Saxons," a mix of Saxons, Lower Saxons, Frisians, Flemings, Thuringians, etc., massively migrated to the lands of the Crown of St. Stephen in the late 12 and early 13 century. St. Mary at Bapska is yet another link of Croatian lands with that important European medieval phenomenon