Biserica reformată din Turda Veche: cercetările arheologice din anii 2018–2020 / The Reformed Church of Turda Veche: the archaeological research between 2018 and 2020

Turda, one of the foremost settlements of Transylvania and the seat of the homonymous medieval county, appears in documents ever since the 11th century. Except for the Chamber House, the historical secular architecture of the city’s central area has disappeared. Nevertheless, part of its ecclesiastical architecture has survived, primarily the Reformed Church of Turda Veche, located between the southern end of the central square and the left bank of the Racilor (Crayfish) Valley, and which, despite the changes that have affected it over time, remains to this day one of the most representative monuments produced by Transylvania’s ecclesiastical medieval architecture. The church starts to show up in documents in the early 14th century, when it belonged to the Order of Hermits of Saint Augustine and only much later on, during the 17th century, in the wake of the Reformation, it came into possession of the Reformed community of Turda Veche. The edifice underwent numerous modifications during its existence, so it does not survive in its original shape. Today it stands as a chancel-less hall-church – the choir was demolished in the Early Modern Age – with galleries on its eastern and western sides, Gothic portals on its northern and western sides and a massive southern tower, erected in a historicizing style in the early 20th century. Although it was the subject of a variety of art history studies, until recently the monument did not benefit from archaeological research to shed light on its tangible history. The first scientific archaeological excavations to touch the structure of the Reformed Church of Turda Veche were undertaken in 2010, when preliminary work for a church restoration project took place. In 2018, research was resumed and intermittently continued until 2020, as part of the project “ The Rehabilitation of the Reformed Church “ Turda Veche”, Turda Municipality, Cluj County”. During these years, excavations undertaken in ten archaeological research units, both inside and outside the monument, as well as observations carried out during utilitarian works, allowed researchers to begin reconstructing the structural development and decline of the Reformed Church of Turda Veche and of its site. The foremost result of the investigation was identifying an earlier stage of the church, respectively a ruined northern wall, the protruding foundation of a triumphal arch and areas of pavement surviving at too great a depth. Due to the limited extent of the excavations, neither the dimensions nor the shape of this earlier church could be determined. Nevertheless, several clues – such as a grave overlapped by the apse, irregularities noticeable in the aboveground structure of the nave, the foundation of a buttress abutting the foundation of the nave, etc. – hint that the changes the church underwent were on a far greater scale than the excavations were able to reveal so far and that it involved expansions both eastward and westward. The early 14th century probably marked the end of this structure, on whose ruins was erected the current-day church, at least 0.5 m wider in its northern area and likely much longer. The implemented ground plan presented the peculiarity that the nave and the choir were separated from the very beginning by a continuous wall, interrupted only by a single door with a simple stone frame. Later on, a gallery-type rood screen with a continuous wall on its western side, abutted to the northern and southern walls of the nave and similarly interrupted only by a single door, was assembled in the easternmost area of the nave. After surviving a first major fire, the rood screen was demolished after a second one, and the present-day western gallery eventually replaced it. Regarding the razed choir, the research proved unable to uncover chronological indicia able to date its disappearance ; based on documentary evidence, it was already in ruins in the 18th century. Its former inside area was reused for the construction of a bell-tower – which collapsed in 1862 – and on its northern wall rose a regular building – the Bell-Ringers House, which survived until the early 20th century. The ruins of both these structures could be partially investigated in 2020. A surprise was the appearance, south-west of the church, during utilitarian works, of several ruined masonry structures. Although it is likely that they belong to monastery buildings, some of them may be Roman in origin. One of the walls was still standing in the 18th century, but not the others, three of which shaped a compartment in which a roof made of Roman tiles collapsed, and which was succeeded southwards by a cobbled alley ( ?). Excluding the pieces dating from recent times (18th– 20th century), the uncovered material was scarce, limited to several coins, some sherds and a few clothing accessories. Conversely, a large quantity of fragmentary architectonical elements was brought to light, some of them from the choir, others from the rood screen while others from structures that cannot yet be identified. The amount of Roman construction materials, often bearing stamps, salvaged and reused in mass for the structures of the medieval church was also impressive. In any case, the presence of several disturbed coins in the backfill of the graves from inside the church is worthy of notice, especially that of a Parvus issued by Charles Robert d’Anjou sometime between 1330 and 1336, a period that matches surprisingly well with the first documentary mention of the monastery – the year 1331. Although still only at its beginning, the archaeological investigation carried out at the Reformed Church of Turda Veche confirmed the richness of dormant historical data harboured by the subsoil of the site. Continued research – due to happen at some uncertain point of the future – will certainly shed more light on this monument of so great significance for the architectonical past of Transylvania.