From archaeological excavation to exhibition
György Rákóczi I’s cannon foundry in Sárospatak
MúzeumCafé 45.
It is rare for a built heritage monument, which came to light in an archaeological context, to be exhibited to the public almost directly following the end of the excavations. Yet, this fortunate situation occurred in Sárospatak, where the results of excavations performed between 2006 and 2012 on a 17th-century cannon foundry and the founding technology of bronze cannons in the Early Modern Age are presented to visitors. Excavation of the site, which is unique from the aspects of industrial history and archaeology, did not exactly begin with the intention of future display. The primary task was to document the ruins of the foundry underground and to analyse the finds, i.e. the aim was mainly to gain information. It was actually the scientific processing, which was conducted in parallel with field work, which gave rise to the idea of not reburying the excavated remains or allowing them to decay. The primary aim became preserving the remains and, if possible, establishing a protective building which could be suitable not only for keeping and partly displaying the original details in an explanatory manner, but also for staging a permanent exhibition. However, all this resulted in a grave dilemma: what kind of building with a ground plan of nearly 400 square metres could be constructed in the Outer Castle? Since the major part of the foundry building had fallen into ruins, an architectural reconstruction suggesting the original would have involved several major hypotheses. The best solution seemed to be a building which would house the foundry’s excavated original remains combined with a variety of interpretive additions. The staged exhibition is the result of theoretical and practical work involving several branches of science. It hopefully represents a worthy memorial to the cannon-foundry activity of prince György Rákóczi I.