Preliminary communication
Summary of Archaeological Excavations of St. Martin’s Church in Prozorje to 2005
Juraj Belaj
Abstract
The Institute of Archaeology has conducted systematic archaeological conservation excavations of the medieval church of St. Martin in Prozorje near Dugo Selo since 2002. The oldest parts of the ruins visible until recently originate from the sixteenth century, but the titular of a church in the region had been present from the beginning of the thirteenth century. More intense excavations were conducted in the sanctuary of the church and the surroundings, as well as the eastern corners of the nave and the area to its south. Indicators of several construction phases and an extension of the Church of St. Martin were found. The Gothic phase of the church with pillars prevails. It is evident that it was at least partly built on older church foundations, which might have had a different orientation. The remains of two sacristies, a vestibule and side chapels were unearthed. There are not many layers in the narrow sense of the word, which is usual on such sites; frequent and permanent burials in the same area mostly destroyed the multiple layers, so that they are preserved only partially. More than a hundred of graves were found of various preservation grades, different orientations (those parallel with the church axis prevailing) and with various ages of the deceased. According to the interrelations of the graves and their relation to the buildings, it is possible to identify several burial phases on the site. Some burials were placed in tombs worked as masonry or constructed with wooden beams. In some graves very interesting finds were unearthed, but the most interesting finds mostly originate from the disrupted layers. They take us deeper and deeper into the past, during the reigns Matthias Corvinus, Sigismund of Luxembourg and Charles I Robert (coins); the unearthed gravestone with a chiselled shield and sword originates from the turn of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and even older than that is an ear − ringing with S-loop (Ohringe mit S-Schlauf). It is believed that follow-up systematic excavations in the future shall give us a more complete picture of the site.
Keywords
Templars; Hospitallers; St. Martin’s Church; sacral architecture; Middle Ages; Prozorje; Dugo Selo
Hrčak ID:
9231
URI
Publication date:
11.11.2006.
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