Another medieval church ruin has been conserved within the framework of the ROM Vándor (Ruin Rover) program launched by Market Építő Zrt, according to the design principles that have proved to be successful at previous projects. Besides conservation, the sacred nature of the ruin has been marked with low-key contemporary architectural means in harmony with the spirit of the place, and a unique work of art has also been created.
Architect: KELEMEN Bálint
The church was built at the former village of Somogy, which has been mentioned in archival sources since 1389. The destruction and depopulation of the village began with the Turkish occupation and ended during the Fifteen Years’ War, in 1622 it was already mentioned as Somoly puszta/wasteland. Its church was already a ruin in 1721, and from 1824 only its tower stood. In 1963, the National Monuments Institute conserved the ruin, and in 1999, they carried out a rescue operation and excavated the foundation walls of the apse and altar. Based on this, it can be concluded that the church could have been built in one period, in the Gothic style, in the 14th-16th centuries (its dating is highly uncertain). A church with a tower on the western side, a single nave, the apse enclosed by walls on three sides of an octagon, with a building (sacristy) on the north, and buttresses at the corners. There was once a cemetery around the church.
The ruin is located on the outskirts of Regöly on a hill of north-south direction. The area is under agricultural cultivation, but the ruin has an independent plot, its ground is covered by thicket and grass. Today, only the western bell tower, the connecting western wall of the nave, and short sections of the northern and southern walls of the nave have remained from the onetime church. The walls of the church are made of brick, the binding material is lime mortar. During the 1963 addition, small solid bricks were used, laid in a cement based binding material. Three openings with arches lead to the bottom of the tower, the western one is higher, the northern and southern ones are lower and they are of the same design. Probably, a door with stone frame led to the church nave. Based on the beam nests on its inner side and the windows, the tower must have had at least a ground floor plus three more floors. According to the expert opinions, the bricks and binding material of the 1963 restoration were basically in good condition, but there were major frost damages and loss of mortar on the top of the wall. The condition of the medieval masonry, mortar and plaster showed a more varied picture, the cracks in the tower walls had not been treated, and the medieval and later added masonry were not joined properly.
The aim of the interventions carried out within the framework of the ROM Vándor program is the professional preservation of the remaining historical monuments. During conservation, the several hundred year old brick walls were reinforced, the cracks in the tower were fixed with an up-to-date wall seaming method, the different walls were unified and the remaining original plaster was conserved by a restorer. It is one of the special features of the ROM Vándor program, that in addition to technical conservation, it also reinterprets the sacred and community role of the ruins with low-key contemporary architectural means, in harmony with the spirit of the place. This is what happened in Regöly, where two unique, contemporary architectural elements/works of art have been integrated into the structure. One is a slender cross made of corten steel, starting directly above ground level and extending above the tower, which also serves as a lightning rod. The other is a special, suspended metal sculpture that can be seen if you stand in the middle of the tower base and look up, it appears in the sky in front of the opening created by the missing spire. Bent of copper pipe, it is a stylized dove, which is the symbol of the Holy Spirit in Christianity.
During the landscaping works, an access road to the ruin was built and the surroundings of the disturbed ruin were tidied up. Three corten steel bollards have been placed at the entrance of the plot, which also serve as information boards. The grove of trees and shrubs on the plot have been preserved in course of the necessary interventions. The walls of the church ruin that are not visible above ground (nave, apse, sacristy, altar) have been marked by perennials planted in strips above them, which, with their white flowering, strongly outline the floor plan of the former building every year. The three contemporary elements, the cross, the dove and the flowers planted above the onetime walls, together try to create a connection with the sacred function of the ruin.
Location: Regöly outlying area Built: 2025 Architect: KELEMEN Bálint Associate architects: SÉRÁLÓ Mirella, SÁNDOR Nóra Virág Structural engineer: VÁCZI Péter Building diagnostics, structural review: BARATTA Egon, Dr. FENYVESI Olivér Electrical engineer (lightning protection): MÁRAMAROSI András, KAPITOR György Senior technical coordinator: NÉMETH Tamás Building history: RÁCZ Miklós (E.V) Restorer: BÁNFI Gábor (E.V.) Client, general contractor: Market Építő Zrt – ROM Vándor program manager: BELECZ Péter, project manager: KRENN Tamás, construction manager: SZABADOSI Tamás 3D spatial scanning, topographic survey: SZAPPANYOS Tibor (Kvalitron Kft.) Historic monument consultant: ARNÓTH Ádám (E.V.) Area: ruin 17 m², plot 1.310 m2
