What is being built?

LATEREX gave us an insight into the restoration works of the Cathedral of St. Michael in Veszprém

Published

2023. 07. 11. 09:52
During the renovation of the millennia-old building, valuable artefacts were uncovered, which also necessitated a redesign of the existing plans.
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The renovation of the castle district in Veszprém began in the spring of 2022. A total of 18 buildings and their surrounding areas will be renovated as part of the project. The investment will continue until the end of 2025, but several buildings will already be open to visitors in 2023, the year of the European Capital of Culture programme. As we previously reported, St Michael's Cathedral will once again welcome worshippers and visitors from Easter 2023. The LATEREX Építő Zrt. general contractor and the project engineering activities of Vemév-szer Kft., Dobosy Gáborné Hajnalka, chief engineer of the LATEREX Építő Zrt. project, gave our newspaper a glimpse behind the scenes.

Both building and heritage protection and restoration permits were needed to start the restoration work on the Cathedral. During the restoration work, restorers worked on the building in stone, painting, wood, metal and glass. The application for a restoration licence was followed by an official inspection and a professional jury.

"Following the archaeological excavations, the excavation of the enclosures began. According to the restoration documentation, the highlighted enclosure could be moved in a numbered manner, as the other elements, with a sky marking. Following the removal of the cladding, the masonry was given special attention, as the planned restoration works also affected the Romanesque masonry, the Gothic masonry and the Gothic vault. No work could be carried out without probing, cleaning and documenting the medieval walls," said Gáboror Gáborné Dobosy.

One of the challenges of the project was that the structural condition of the covered structures under the envelopes was not fully known before excavation, so in several cases the plans had to be modified. For example, the organ choir slab, the floor layering of the nave, the support of the side altars, the Gothic vaulting of the sacristy and the sanctuary, for which new structural designs were prepared in parallel with the construction process.

Photos by Tamás Dernovics / magyarepitok.hu

Protecting the finds was a priority

Wall excavations have resulted in the discovery of 3 palmette fragments in the wall of the north aisle of the nave. One of the carvings is an intact fragment of the cylindrical trunk of the Romanesque transept of the eastern pillar of the transept, which remains in its original position. Two of the 11th-century carvings have been excavated and placed in a museum.

In the electrical room of the north tower, wall breaks had to be made to accommodate the new external electrical feed. The surrounding walls of the tower date back to the main construction period (around 1040), from which a vaulted start has survived. It is one of the earliest finds in the artistic history of the Cathedral.

The soundings carried out by the art historian revealed and documented the masonry, the impressions, mortar scars and masonry alterations of the previous thousand years. Several burial sites have been uncovered, and the remains of earlier buildings and masonry of the castle have been revealed in the stratigraphy beneath the enclosure.

In order to protect the artefacts, the results of the research almost always required modifications to the existing construction plans: redesigning the insulation, the electrical and low-voltage system routes, and the static connection points.

The nearly 1000-year-old building is now run by modern IT systems

"During the restoration work, where previous paint had been covered up, it was necessary to create witness surfaces for posterity and to ensure that new layers of paint could be decomposed. In the case of stone restoration work, where possible, replacements had to be obtained from the quarry or area from which the original stone block came. A difficulty was that several such domestic quarries had been closed down in recent decades. However, the replacement of stones was helped by the fact that all the valuable building elements of the past were stored, so that those that were not reused in the buildings were suitable for restoration work."- the expert informed.

The existing Romanesque masonry, Gothic masonry and vaulting, Baroque brickwork and Neo-Romanesque building structures had to be adapted to the most modern architectural, structural and IT requirements of the day. The IT potential of the cathedral is presented by the high quality audiovisual systems, the DALI-controlled lighting and the IT connectivity of the organ.

The main restoration and renovation works carried out on the cathedral building are as follows:

  • waterproofing work was carried out under the flooring, the walls were grouted and finished with WTA plaster;
  • structural reinforcement of floors and slabs using mixed steel and reinforced concrete structures;
  • the mechanical mains and underfloor heating were installed in the nave, the sacristy, the sanctuary and the choir lofts;
  • the building automation system was installed;
  • the traces of the high and low voltage power lines were built;
  • restored the stone frames, columns, door frames, stone thresholds and wooden shutters, and manufactured and installed new interior wooden doors;
  • the stained glass was removed and new glass was manufactured and installed;
  • new steel stairs were manufactured and installed in the south and north towers;
  • restored the metal doors, existing door hinges, locks and bells;
  • the wooden ceiling was restored;
  • custom luminaires have been manufactured and installed with DALI control programming;
  • the exterior façade was painted.

The design of the movable altar presented a special challenge to the experts

The most significant work was the structural reinforcement of the sanctuary slab.

"Due to the variety of liturgical events, the carved altar, which weighs almost 1.2 tonnes, had to be made mobile: general masses on weekdays, festive masses and other ceremonies (weddings, baptisms, church celebrations) require different spatial arrangements. The gothic cross-vaulted stone vault of the altar church was not suitable to carry the load of this movable mass.

With a new steel beam reinforced concrete slab structure with girder girders was developed with a static system independent of the vault. The new slab transfers the load to the gothic perimeter walls of the sanctuary at 10 points above the vault "floating". The allocation of the load transfer points, as well as the design of the network of steel beams, was continuously modified right up to the very end by the masonry and vault excavations, archaeological research and 3D surveys based on the results of these, which were carried out in parallel with the renovation work."

He added: "It was also a challenge that some of the audiovisual equipment arrived in the last few days, so the finishing work was practically done in shifts. The power, IT and AV technicians had to work literally around the clock to keep the building running during the Easter liturgical events."So the work was almost completed almost exclusively during the last few weeks of the week.

Finally, Gáborné Dobosy said: "The Chapel of St. George in the Veszprém Castle district, which is being built by LATEREX Építő Zrt., already shows a renewed image on the outside, but the interior design is still changing. The archaeological works in the chapel are about to start. The gardens of the Körmendy House and the Great Seminary have been partially completed and are open to tourists. The pair of statues of Queen Gizella and King St Stephen have been restored and returned to their elevated position on Vár Street. Vemév-szer Kft., a local company, is one of our main subcontractors for these commissions, and our cooperation is exemplary. For their part,Attila Kovács, chief architect, managed the design coordination of the individual structural reinforcements and the on-site implementation of the construction."

The designs of the Czita Architects' Office were a worthy renewal of the Archdiocese worthy of its rank.The designers are Tamás Czigány, Anikó Páll and Róbert Papp.

The custom-designed glass windows were manufactured and installed in the Cathedral in a material and geometric scheme faithful to the original. The stained glass windows were designed, manufactured and installed by Barnabás Wölfinger and Bernadett Hegyvári.

Restart Kft., Szűcs and Partners Kft. and Csontos Art Kft. participated in the restoration work.

During the construction, the excavation of the monumental values was carried out with the collaboration of art historian Anna Simon and archaeologist Dóra Hegyi.

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