ROLUL PATRONILOR ÎN RECONSTRUIREA ŞI DECORAREA BAROCĂ A BISERICILOR FRANCISCANE DIN TRANSILVANIA. CAZUL BISERICILOR FRANCISCANE DIN MEDIAŞ ŞI BRAŞOV
THE ROLE OF BENEFACTORS IN THE RECONSTRUCTION AND BAROQUE DECORATION OF FRANCISCAN CHURCHES IN TRANSYLVANIA.THE CASE OF THE CHURCHES IN MEDIAŞ AND BR.

Summary/Abstract: The Role of Benefactors in the Reconstruction and Baroque Decoration of Franciscan Churches in Transylvania. The Case of the Churches in Mediaş and Braşov. During the first decades of the 18th century, the Franciscan order regained several former monasteries in the main cities of Transylvania that became significant centers of the Catholic Church in the era, in most cases in settlements where inhabitants of other confessions held the absolute majority. This confessional situation is typical to the Saxon cities and as a result benefactors from outside those cities intervened in the reconstruction and interior decoration of these edifices. The present study aims at analyzing two such cases from the Saxon cities of Mediaş and Braşov, starting from a series of previously unpublished written sources (protocols and the history of those monasteries, but also epigraphic and heraldic sources). Starting from the analysis of such sources, one begins to grasp two distinct cases of patronage over Franciscan monasteries in the Saxon cities of Transylvania, since the most important benefactors of the two monasteries mainly came from different backgrounds. While in the case of the church in Mediaş they were mainly among the most important members of Transylvania Catholic aristocracy, in several cases persons with possessions in the valleys of the Târnavas (such as, for example, governor János Haller), the reconstruction of the church and monastery in Braşov was mainly supported by members of the military elite of the Austrian troops in Transylvania and of the garrison stationed in the city. Data on the reconstruction and Baroque refurbishing of the two Franciscan building complexes provides not only a better knowledge on the history of the two monasteries, but also new indications and basis for the issue of artistic patronage during the Baroque period.

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