Pápa - Great Church

Dominating the main square (Fo tér) stands the Great Church, dedicated to St Stephen (the martyr, not St Stephen the King as is so often the case in Hungary). In the Late Baroque/Classical 18th C plait style and very imposing for a parish church, it was built in 1774-86 first by Jakob Fellner (1722-80), the Eszterházy's own architect, and after his death by Josef Grossmann. The designs were drawn up by Franz Anton Pilgram. In the tympanum can be seen the coat-of-arms of the founder, Károly Eszterházy, and above the gable stands a statue of St Stephen by J.A. Messerschmidt of Bratislava, flanked by angels. The fine frescos in the Bohemian vaulted ceiling were painted by Franz Anton Maulbertsch and portray the life of St Stephen; the gray monochrome relief paintings in the spandrels are modeled on those in the church of San Stephano Rotondo in Rome. Maulbertsch was also responsible for the wall-paintings in the Chapel of Our Lady (to the left of the choir) and in the sacristy. The main altar-piece ("The Stoning of St Stephen", by the Viennese artist Hubert Maurer; 1785) is flanked by marble statues of the canonized Kings Stephen and Ladislaus by the Viennese sculptor Philipp Jakob Prokop. The cedarwood pulpit and pews are also very beautiful.