The Medieval Parish Church of Baia Mare: Preliminary Results of an Archaeological Research Project

Baia Mare (Nagybánya in Hungarian, a town today in Northwestern Romania) was an important mining town in medieval Hungary. It was called Rivulus Dominarum, meaning “Lady’s Creek.” The town owed its emergence and prosperity to gold and silver mining and related minting. The town, therefore, was an important economic centre, not only in the region but also for the whole Hungarian Kingdom. Once a large parish church stood near the main square, but it became almost entirely dismantled, only its tower standing since the second half of the 19th century. From 2012 to 2014, archaeological excavations were carried out in the parish church and its surroundings; the results allow us to outline a much more detailed picture of this significant medieval building