The Benedictine Pannonhalma Archabbey - Hungary - Travel & Discover

The Benedictine Monastery of Pannonhalma in western Hungary was founded in 996 by Prince Géza of Hungary. Hungary's first Benedictine monastery, it was dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours, who was believed to have been born at the site. It soon became a center of Eastern European medieval culture. The monks at Pannonhalma spread Christian civilization by converting Hungarians, establishing the country's first school, and in 1055, writing the first document in the Hungarian language. From the time of its founding, this monastic community has promoted culture throughout Central Europe. Its thousand-year history can be seen in the succession of architectural styles that characterize the buildings of the monastic complex, the oldest of which dates from 1224. Today, the monastery remains home to a monastic community and school. The hill upon which the monastery was constructed was called the Sacred Mount of Pannonia, after the Roman name for this area. Throughout the centuries, the monastery has been influenced by the major historical events that shaped Central Europe. In the 13th century, Eurus, the monastery's abbot and the church's commissioner, fought off Mongol invaders from the walls of the monastery stronghold. Under the abbot Matey-Tonay in the 16th century, Pannonhalma gained a prominent position among Hungarian Benedictine monasteries, and in 1541 was granted the status of archabbey. During the 150 years of Turkish occupation, between the mid-16th and early 17th centuries, the monks were forced at times to flee Pannonhalma. Reconstruction of the damaged buildings began after the Turkish left Hungary. Under the archabbot Benedikt Sagol in the 18th century, the monastery was rebuilt in the Baroque style. The tradition represented by the rule of Saint Benedict does not place emphasis so much on the work of the community, but on community life itself, a monastic ideal that would be challenged by the Enlightenment notions espoused by Emperor Joseph II. In 1786, he ordered the suppression of all of Hungary's Benedictine monasteries. After the restoration of the Benedictines in 1802, following the emperor's demise, they became known as the Teaching Order, and Pannonhalma as a center for secondary education. After 1945, the properties of the Order and the schools run by the Benedictines were confiscated by the communist state. The government permitted the secondary schools in Győr and Pannonhalma to reopen their doors in 1950. After the fall of communism in Hungary, the Benedictine community of Pannonhalma has been involved in raising funds necessary for them to fulfill their role in the church and secular life, in addition to continuing their educational work. The Pannonhalma Abbey is the only well-preserved example of a traditional Benedictine monastery remaining in Hungary. The cloister, the center of monastic life, lies to the south of the church. The extant cloister was built in 1472 under King Matthias. An inscription on one of the cloister's cornerstones indicates that construction was probably finished in 1486. The work was presumably carried out by craftsmen of the Visegrad Royal Workshop of Construction. The square cloister is in the Gothic style, its vaulting arching upward from consoles decorated with symbolic motifs and sculpted stones. The monastic cloister typically consists of four arcades enclosing a central courtyard. Its design shelters the monks from the rain, while its windows or arches open onto the fresh air. Some fragments of Romanesque and early Gothic fresco painting can be seen in Pannonhalma's cloister. The door on the church's southern wall, the splendid Porta Speziosa, connects the monastery's two main structures, the cloister and the church. The fact that the church's beautiful door opened onto the cloister, as opposed to the exterior, demonstrates that the church was primarily constructed for the monks, not for pilgrims. The monks entered the church for services through the Porta Speziosa after congregating in the cloister. In medieval times, the main purpose of the cloister garden was as a place for silent contemplation and study of the Word of God. The Romanesque portal is lined by five pairs of columns in red marble. The cloister houses a number of tombstones from the 14th century with sculpted figural decorations, a rarity in Hungary. Along with the tower and the elementary school, one of the most impressive buildings of the Arch Abbey complex is the library. Though the edifice itself was finished in the first third of the 19th century, the idea it represents is 1,500 years old. The magnificence of the Abbey's buildings make it worth visiting from a strictly architectural point of view, but its rich artistic and scholarly collections further enhance its importance. Its library contains over 300,000 volumes, making it the world's largest Benedictine collection. The Abbey archives preserve numerous priceless documents, the most renowned item being the earliest document written in the Hungarian language, the founding charter of the Tihanyi Abbey from 1055. The main part of the building was designed and built by Ferenc Engel in the 1820s. Janos Pak was later commissioned with extending the edifice, creating the oval hall, while the building's interior was the work of Josef Kleber, a Viennese master. The archives, built on four levels, is a neoclassical masterpiece adorned with numerous statues. The walls of the room are lined with enclosed cabinets rising two stories high. The Abbey's 19th-century classical library, with its collection of texts, is one of Europe's richest monastery libraries. Its stock of manuscripts boasts unparalleled treasures relating to the Hungarian Church and world culture. One of the loveliest parts of the library is its main hall, topped with an imposing segmented barrel vault. The Library of the Monastery houses a rich collection of priceless documents. St. Benedict made reading a central part of monastic life, and throughout the centuries, Benedictine libraries became the repository of not only early Christian literature, but also texts of the classical works of Greek and Roman civilization. In so doing, it played a fundamental role in forming European culture, Eastern and Western. The most valuable pieces of the collection are the incunabula and the codices. Hungarian scholars of the Middle Ages regard the year 1526 as the dividing line between the medieval period and the early modern period. Most of the written sources produced by the kingdom's central government organs vanished from a considerable part of the country during the following 150 years of Turkish occupation. Collecting of medieval written sources began as early as the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th centuries. Paintings on the four sides of the ceiling of the oval hall depict the allegories of the four medieval university faculties, law, theology, medicine, and the arts. The abbey that lies on the Roman sacred mount of Pannonia, and the monastic community it houses, are as old as the country of Hungary, and have contributed greatly to the formation of its cultural identity. The monastery is a place of encounter, an encounter with God, with others, with the past. In this place is fostered an atmosphere of openness, which enhances the dialogue between the traditions of the past and the present. The abbey's basilica, built in the late Romanesque and early Gothic style, is a masterpiece of medieval Hungarian architecture. The church is the center of monastic life, the site where the Holy Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours are celebrated. The present Church of Pannonhalma, a crowning achievement of the early Gothic style, was built at the beginning of the 13th century under Abbot Eurós and was most likely consecrated in 1224. The three naves of the church are separated by richly articulated columns connected by elongated arches. The pillars are, in some places, decorated by naturalistic carved motifs of flowers, leaves, and vines. The pulpit, main altar, pews, along with the frescoes decorating the ceiling, and the stained glass windows above the altar depicting St. Martin were last renovated in the 1860s under the direction of Ferenc Storno. The church's architecture is characterized by the harmony of its design, the style of its stone carving, and its floral decorations, all of which work together to create bright, open spaces whose equilibrium is fundamentally satisfying. Recent archaeological findings under the floor level of the basilica's west end shed light on the structure of the monastery's earliest church, which dated from the 11th century. Based on the discovery of remnants of a semi-circular crypt, it can be deducted that the first church of Pannonhalma was a basilica with a double shrine and crypt. The main nave is covered by a separate vault. A marble stairway leads to the elevated channel covered by star-shaped reticulated vaulting. The Baroque sacristy is accessed from the northern side aisle. The church was extended during the reign of King Matthias, in which the present-day ceiling of the sanctuary, the eastern ends of the aisles, and the St. Benedict Chapel were completed. During the Turkish occupation, the church's furnishings were completely destroyed. The most significant renovation after the occupation was begun in the 1720s, under Archabbot Benedict Xago. The passage leading down to the church's crypt opens onto an interior divided into three naves of equal width, covered by Gothic cross-vaulting, with three sets of columns. Human heads also appear amongst the carved floral ornamentation. Tradition holds that the throne of the abbot, ensconced in the western wall, is the seat of St. Stephen. A thousand-year imprint has been left by the abbey complex, which dominates the landscape of the little Hungarian plain from atop its hill, 282 meters high. The abbey's monks once grew and collected herbs to treat the sick. Careful study has been able to recover the layout of the monastery's natural environs in previous centuries. In 1830, as many as 80 distinct varieties of trees and bushes were to be found on the archabbey's lands. The Baroque complex incorporates original Romanesque and Gothic structures. The church's 55-meter-high neoclassical domed tower was built by Janos Pak in the early 19th century. When it was first built, the Benedictine monastery of Pannonhalma was encircled by a stone wall. The archabbey of Pannonhalma is currently implementing plans to increase its accessibility to tourists. These plans include undertaking further renovations of the abbey's buildings and grounds, such as the improvement of its infrastructure. Additional buildings have been planned, for example youth hostel and pilgrims' house, to accommodate overnight visitors. The planting of an herb garden is in the works, along with such interactive tourist attractions as an open workshop for visitors. The building complex, which includes the archabbey and its church, the Millennium Monument, the Cemetery Chapel, and the Stations of the Cross, is home to the monastic community and its school, housing a total of 500 persons from autumn to spring. The Pannonhalma Abbey and its natural environment were designated a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site in 1996, both for the majesty of its buildings and the important role the monastery played in the diffusion of Christianity in Hungary and the creation of Hungarian culture. The traditions of the Pannonhalma Monastery are in many ways connected to both educational and pastoral work. About 50 Benedictine monks still live in the monastery, most of whom work in the monastery's boarding school. The monks of Pannonhalma continue to fulfill their vocation by living a life of hope and peace within the framework of liturgy and work in community. Guided by their abbot, they seek to find answers rooted in their tradition to the problems and questions posed by modern life. At the same time, they attempt to achieve the proper balance between prayer and labor, and between intellectual and spiritual life. According to the rule established by St. Benedict, monks must try to achieve self-sufficiency, that is, to provide for themselves out of their own labor. This is why monasteries have traditionally placed an emphasis on labor in addition to prayer. For many centuries, labor was understood to mean primarily agricultural and manual labor. Since the church and monastery were built in the Middle Ages, the Benedictine monks at Pannonhalma and elsewhere have also engaged in the revival of viticulture, as first developed by the Romans. Pannonhalma had its own winery until it was confiscated by the communist government after 1945. In 2003, the monks revived its ancient winemaking tradition by building a new winery and cellar on a 2,000 square meter plot on the abbey's lands. New vines were planted in 2001 on 37 hectares of vineyards. Two-thirds of the vineyard are dedicated to cultivating green grapes such as Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, and Gewürztaminer, while on the remaining third traditional varietals together with promising international clones are grown. The second largest territorial abbey in the world, the Benedictine Archabbey at Pannonhalma, played a fundamental role in the foundation and propagation of Christianity and European medieval culture in Hungary. It remains a testimony to the magnificence of Benedictine architecture and the important role it played in creating and fostering European Christendom. The foundation of the monastery was instrumental in the development of Christian culture in medieval Hungary. It is a world heritage indeed, which opens a window onto the reality of God as well as onto the values of universal human culture.