The Reformed Church of Ciumești
Located south-westward to Carei, the reformed church of Ciumești has being built during the Angevins age, so the building is especially interesting and valuable.
Ciumești was mentioned for the first time in the documents in 1298, when, after being owned by the Gutkeled clan, it became the property of Simon Ördög and his family of the Kaplony clan. In the 14th century, it became the name-giving land of the Csomaközi family of the Kaplony clan and it was also the manorial centre. Significant parts of the land were owned by the Károlyi, a Vetési and Bagosi families. Following the death of Zsigmond Csomaközi, the male line of the Csomaközi family died out in 1768, so Johann Mészáros von Szoboszló, leader of the cavalry, gained the land on female line, who was general officer since 1789 and later in 1794 got baron title and became the renowned lieutenant general of the Austrian Imperial army. He lived in Ciumești and he rests in the crypt of the church. His daughter married into the Teleki family from Szék and she was the mother of the politician László Teleki, the most important figure of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848-1849.
The former medieval Catholic church of Ciumești might have been built around 1330 and 1340. The village was not recorded in the record of the Papal Tithe, but in 1349 its clergyman called Miklós was mentioned, who was also the subdeacon of Satu Mare. Its parson called Márton was recorded in 1462 and in 1548 the church received the All Saints’ title.
The population of the village together with its landlords probably joined the Protestant Reformation in the middle of the 16th century, around 1550, and the congregation of Ciumești was shortly included in the Presbytery of Solnocul de Mijloc. During the Ottoman rule and as the consequence of Rákóczi’s War of Independence, the Protestant population of the village had gone through such a significant decrease that at the beginning of the 18th century the church started to perish and the congregation disappeared. At the beginning of the 19th century the number of the Protestants was stagnant but after the turn of the century it continuously decreased in number and as a result of the high death rate and emigration, the Reformed congregation practically does not exist today.
As a result of the archaeological and building excavations made in 2013, the history of the building of the church was discovered. Ciumești is a good example for the phenomena, that in the period, starting with the end of the Árpád dynasty and lasting until the second half of the 14th century, it was a widespread tradition, that late Romanesque and early Gothic elements were used on the same church at the same time. Fragmented with buttresses and having an apse with a polygon ending, the church has got a western door with battlemented frontispiece spanned by a round-arched archivolt with multiple bands, while the southern door and the window discovered during wall exploration are from the Romanesque times and both end in a slightly pointed arch. In the apse the following were discovered: the print of the ribbed brick vault, the ribs springing from the buttresses, a sedilia, the opening of the sacristy, the ciborium and several tiny fragment of murals. A barrel vaulted space was annexed to northern side of the nave in the medieval period, which opened into the nave by two latter cut arcades and it probably worked as a chapel or a place for burial.
The powerful congregation renovated the church in 1785. The perishing wooden bell tower was replaced in 1831, a new tower being built in the front of the western facade. In 1834, during the great earthquake the church suffered a significant damage and the renewing was paid by its patron, the wife of Count László Teleki.
During the restoration between 2013 and 2014, the church’s structure was fortified, a new roof was shaped and it regained its medieval features, the visitors are welcomed to see its original beauty. Its bell tower was moved a little farther from the impressive western door. As church services are not held here, an exhibition presenting the church and the local history is established here, and the two restored modern crypts under the nave are open for visitors.
