Pannonhalma Archabbey
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How it came to be
Pannonhalma was founded in 996 by Prince Géza as the first Benedictine monastery in Hungary. It was dedicated to St Martin of Tours, and Géza's son, King Stephen I, gave it estates and privileges. Its monks helped convert the Hungarians to Christianity and opened the country's first school.
The library still holds the founding charter of Tihany Abbey from 1055, the oldest surviving document to use the Hungarian language. The present church, begun in 1224, is the third on the site, and the cloister was built in Late Gothic style in 1486. Ottoman advances in the 16th and 17th centuries led to the abbey being fortified, and the monks had to leave it for long stretches.
A Baroque refectory was added in 1724-27 and the library in 1824-35. The abbey was closed in 1786 and reopened in 1802, and in 1950 the state confiscated the order's property and schools. In 1996, the year of its millennium, the abbey and its natural setting were inscribed. About 50 monks still live there and run a boys' boarding school.
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