Conservation of the medieval church ruin has been carried out 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. The renovation of the much deteriorated ruin has been endowed with an individual character by the addition of a door-like contemporary structure.
Architect: KELEMEN Bálint
The ruin was a brick church built in several phases at Kér village, which had been founded around the 10th century. The small, single nave church, with a straight apse and a gallery on the west side, was probably built in the 13th century. The cemetery around the church was surrounded by a wall, with entrance from the east. The church had probably been extended in several phases, up to the late medieval times, with a tower of rectangular floor plan and a sacristry or chapel next to the apse. A great part of the village and the church had been devastated during the Turkish occupation. The plot of the church was used as a cemetery later. The remains of the walls had been partially excavated in 1960 and 1972, several skeletons were found in the western extension area and other remains were found as well.
The rectangular plot is bordered by a ditch, with a culvert-entrance on the west side. The ruin, located in the middle of the grassy area, was surrounded by groups of lilac shrubs and ditches of rogue excavations. In the western foreground of the ruin, there was a large mound of rubble and old tombstones and brick masonry lay scattered around. The walls of the small, single nave church, that of its northern extension and the surrounding wall of the medieval cemetery can no longer be seen above ground. What remained visible is the western wall of the western extension. The brick masonry has been mixed with sandstone elements in certain parts, the average width of the wall is 80 cm, its height is 6,0-6,3 m measured from the present ground level. The wall is dirty, it is covered with moss in places, bricks have fallen out of the outer layer mostly close to the ground, but according to the restorer report and structural examination, the core of the wall is compact and stable, only a few bricks have eroded significantly. Original plaster have remained in patches on the northern half of the eastern side of the wall, next to the stub of the onetime transverse wall.
The starting phase of design for the conservation included the topographic and archaeological geophysical survey of the ruin, an archaeological excavation and the scientific documentation of building history.
The basic purpose of the renovation (and also that of the ROM Vándor program) was the technical conservation of the poetic ruin, the preservation of its aesthetic and historic values and its natural harmony with the surrounding landscape; including some small-scale contemporary additions which could become valuable assets. The most important task was the conservation of the ruin, the cleaning of the wall surface and the joints, the unbuilding and rebuilding of the loose wall sections and the replacement of the missing patches, while preserving the natural contours of the wall with as little as possible structural and proportional additions. Only one new structure has been built, which stabilizes the ruin and evokes the place and scale of the one time church door at the same time, by contemporary means; it marks the sacred focal point of the church and and serves as an information board as well. This door/stabilizing structure has been built of 2 cm thick corten steel sheet, its colour harmonizes with that of the brick and its texture resembles the heterogenous surface of the original brick wall. The lines of the foundations of the one time cemetery, church and sacristry walls, which have been identified exactly by the archaeological geophysical survey, are marked by low ridges of earth. The continuous line of the cemetery wall across the shrubbery is indicated by a bare strip. The surroundings of the ruin have also been given a new life, the lilac shrubs have been pruned, the site have been graded and grassed.
Location: Varjaskér, Somogyszentpál outlying area Built: 2024 Architect: KELEMEN Bálint Associate architect: BÁRÁNY BARÓT Bálint Structural engineer: VÁCZI Péter Building history: ARNÓTH Ádám (E.V.), PATAK Gergely 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: church 147 m², plot 6.500 m2
