Collegium Pazmanianum

Collegium Pazmanianum at Boltzmanngasse 14

The Collegium Pazmanianum shortly Pazmaneum , is a seminar, study and guesthouse of the Archdiocese of Esztergom-Budapest in Vienna District Alsergrund , Boltzmanngasse 14. It is named after Péter Pázmány SJ, Archbishop of Gran , which it founded in 1623 and doped . Archbishop Péter Erdő described it in 2003 as "the Vienna embassy of the Archdiocese of Esztergom-Budapest and the Hungarian Church ".

history

Chapel of the Pazmaneum, altar wall fresco: Sacred Heart, Patrona Hungariae, Hungarian saints

The Hungarian seminary in Vienna was founded by Péter Pázmány as part of his efforts to renew Catholic life in the Hungarian part of the Habsburg Empire against the background of the Counter Reformation and the Turkish Wars . As early as 1618 he bought the Palais Kollonitsch in Annagasse for this purpose . But it was only after the first phase of the Thirty Years War ( Peace of Nikolsburg ) that the facility opened in 1623/1624 under Jesuit leadership, initially with 16 seminarians. Shortly afterwards, the house turned out to be too small and was exchanged for a building on the meat market . The move took place in 1625. After the Peace of Westphalia , the neighboring house, Schönlaterngasse 15 , which had already been acquired earlier, was combined with the old house to form the new seminar building and in 1670 it was taken over.

In the second half of the 18th century, the Pazmaneum was affected by the disputes over the Jesuit order and Josephinism . It was temporarily lifted or relocated until Francis I reopened it in 1804 in its old location.

Today's college building was rebuilt for the Pazmaneum between 1899 and 1900 under the rectorate of Miklós Széchényis (1868-1923), later Bishop of Győr (Raab) , after authorization by Cardinal Claudius Vaszary (1832-1915) . Most of the costs were covered by donations from Hungary. The architect Győző Czigler ( Viktor Czigler , 1850–1905), professor at the University of Budapest , designed a three-wing complex with an inner courtyard in neo-baroque shapes. The chapel dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was particularly lavishly furnished . Its facade on the east side of the street wing is designed in a neo-Romanesque style. On August 25, 1900, the keystone was laid on the building and the house of Károly Hornig (1840–1917), Bishop of Veszprém , was blessed . On November 8, 1900, the home was handed over to its destination.

The seminar found itself in a difficult position with the end of the Habsburg monarchy in 1918. The Hungarian seminarians were now foreigners. The college building survived the Second World War and the occupation almost undamaged. In response to the Stalinist church policy in Hungary, the Holy See made the Pazmaneum subordinate to the Archbishop of Vienna in 1953. It was used to train priests until 1963. By then, a total of 9,000 candidates for priesthood had been prepared for ordination in the facility.

From 1971 to 1975 Cardinal József Mindszenty (1892–1975) spent the last years of his life and exile in the Pazmaneum.

Since December 29, 2001, the Pazmaneum has again been under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest. It serves as a study and guest house for theological training and encounters.