Magical place
Because of the listed church, many tourists and tourist groups arrive every year, and Laszlo Varga takes them every time and tells them the history of the local Reformed Church. He explains that the church is not the house of God as most people imagine.
“That’s what we used to say, but God doesn’t live in the church. When we go there to worship and invite Him there and if He comes there in the Spirit, you can feel a higher presence.”
– confirmed the priest.
The church building is open, and anyone can enter yet, but it is not suitable for worship. Right now, the seats are stacked, covered in dust and gallery, but you can still see the private interior space. 15-16. At the turn of the century, the church was enlarged with a star-domed Gothic temple enclosed in a triangle, the arches of whose roof were carved from stone, and a special stepped sacristy in the Late Gothic style (pastoforium) was placed. On the Gothic rib buttress of the vault, two faces – a man and perhaps a woman, one with facial features and one without – look down at those below the star vault. The vast space of the one-nave building is broken only by a portico with a reinforced concrete structure built in 1936, and the tower containing the two bells inside was added to the front part in the same year. But this is not the first thing that appears upon entering, but rather a strange feeling, a kind of emanating peace, that this small walled island exudes. This building is a thousand-year-old sacred place, where millions of people have placed their trust here and expressed their joy and sorrow before their God.
During the restoration process, during excavations around the church, many human skeletons were discovered. It was later found that the village’s residents were buried here nearly 350 years ago during the Middle Ages. The bones, which were stacked on top of each other, were lying in piles. The Reformed parish wishes to give them last rites and hold a mass memorial for the deceased.
After the reconstruction of the interior space, the renovation will continue with the defensive wall, where we can precisely follow the height of the level in the past centuries: the churchyard is about two meters lower than the height of the public road outside. Furthermore, László Varga also told us that during the excavation of the external drainage system, the original pedestrian level of the Árpád era was discovered, which was about three meters lower than the level of today’s main road that passes through the village.
Although the reconstruction process has faltered, the daily lives of believers have not changed, and meeting places are still changing. The good cooperation of the people of Lazacalas and Silas is a supporting force in itself, as they count down to the completion of the works, but it is certain that their perseverance will be necessary for some time.
