Culture: Rác Church and Gallery

In the winding and twisting streets of Eger, some of them cobblestone and a bit rough on the feet, there are many great 'walks'. For the last month (!) we have been in a car only three times--once from the airport to here, once transported to a lovely dinner party, and once for an extended tour of campus including the model school and upper campus.

So our walks are both practical and pleasurable. We walk to movies, and walk to sightsee. One recent outing was to the Rác Church, not too far out of the work, walk to shop (in many different shops depending upon what we are shopping for!), walk to bank, walk to lunch, walk to Centrum, and the visual arts center nearby.

As in many cases, the tower and steeple of the church is visible from far away, but then sometimes disappears as the street side buildings close in. We first came to the entrance to the parsonage, now a visual arts center. We enjoyed the quiet, peaceful, and free visit there--there were many wonderful contemporary paintings, sculptures, and textiles, many by artists either from Eger, or who worked in Eger.

I'd read about the Serbian Church, and the former parsonage, now a 20th Century visual arts center. The name of the church refers to Serb, Greek, and Dalmatian people who escaped from the Turkish occupation and settled in Eger. I'd read about the wood carvings and paintings, and looked at photos in the wonderful KaiserArt book on Eger, with photos by Ottó Kaiser and text by Ede D. Szabó. But we weren't quite prepared for the beauty and atmosphere of the church.

We wound our way around the block to find the entrance to the churchyard. The thick walls, old gate, and snowy cemetery led us toward a beckoning guide. We walked into the church through a side door, and the (recorded) music echoed within. The late-Baroque church, now only used as a public monument and museum, has amazing paintings and carvings. My photos did not do it justice at all. So I highly recommend a visit, or at least a look at the photos in the book I mentioned above.