Pannonhalma Territorial Abbey

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Pannonhalma - Bencés apátság.jpg
Pannonhalma Territorial Abbey
Map of the Territorial Abbey of Pannonhalma
Basic data
Country Hungary
Ecclesiastical province Immediate
Dept Cirill Tamás Hortobágyi OSB
Dept. Emeritus Imre Asztrik Várszegi OSB
founding 10th century
surface 356 km²
Parishes 15 (December 31, 2011 / AP2013 )
Residents 24,800 (December 31, 2011 / AP2013 )
Catholics 21,400 (December 31, 2011 / AP2013 )
proportion of 86.3%
Diocesan priest 15 (December 31, 2011 / AP2013 )
Religious priest 33 (December 31, 2011 / AP2013 )
Catholics per priest 446
Permanent deacons 2 (31.12.2011 / AP2013 )
Friars 44 (31.12.2011 / AP2013 )
Religious sisters 2 (31.12.2011 / AP2013 )
rite Roman rite
Liturgical language Hungarian
cathedral Szent Márton Bazilika (Pannonhalmi Főapátság)
address Vár u. 1
H-9090 Pannonhalma
Website www.bences.hu

The Abbey of Pannonhalma ( Latin Archiabbatia or Territorialis Abbatia Sancti Martini in Monte Pannoniae , German: Abbey Martin Berg ) is a in the Hungarian community Pannonhalma located territorial abbey , which until today by Benedictine monks inhabited and farmed.

The immediate Benedictine monastery is in the rank of archabbey and is the parent monastery of the Hungarian Benedictine Congregation .

The abbey has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996 .

History of the monastery

Surname

At the time of the Roman Pannonia a Roman settlement with the name Sabaria arose near the Martinsberg - the later location of the monastery . Some Roman stone monuments that are now protected in the inner courtyard of the monastery are early evidence of the ancient regional settlement. During the migration period, the ancient place went under. For the self- image of the medieval monastery foundation, the existence of Sabaria was of great importance, as local tradition says that Saint Martin was born there around 316/317. He gave the monastic foundation its name: Monasterium Sancti Martini - Monastery of Saint Martin. Since today's Szombathely was also called Savaria in Roman times , the true origin of the saint is still discussed today.

The abbey only received the name Pannonhalma in 1823, when the Hungarian linguist Ferenc Kazinczy first used this term in the course of the Magyarization , which he had developed from the Latin Mons Sacer Pannoniae (Holy Mountain Pannonia) in the founding document .

Foundation and Middle Ages

Prince Géza I (940–997; Prince from 972 to 997) founded the monastery on the Holy Mountain of Pannonia in 996, the first Hungarian Benedictine monastery , which was established during the reign of the first Hungarian king, Stephen I (969–1038) Archabbey and has been the center of the Benedictine order in Hungary ever since. The first fathers brought to Martinsberg were Bavarian monks from the Bohemian Archabbey of Breunau , which had only recently been settled from Niederaltaich Monastery in 993 . The aim of the Hungarian kings was to Christianize their people from Pannonhalma .

Stephan I granted the monastery significant privileges in 1001/1002. The certificate issued on this occasion is still the most valuable written document in Pannonhalma. She obliged the monks to pray for the salvation of the later canonized king and the existence of the country and made the monastery directly subordinate to the Holy See in Rome . Pannonhalma has this position to this day and the Benedictines of the monastery still pray daily pro stabilitatem regni - for the existence of the country.

After 1010, the future Saint Maurus studied at the monastery and became abbot there in 1034, before going to Fünfkirchen as bishop in 1036 .

In 1994 important archaeological excavations took place under the church tower. It was possible to uncover the western sanctuary of the first stone Romanesque monastery church. It became clear that this building must have had the dimensions of the early Gothic monastery church that still exists today . This first church, like the monastery buildings, was consecrated in 1001.

King Ladislaus I (1048-1095) gathered the Hungarian nobility in Pannonhalma in 1078. The resolutions negotiated there were included in the so-called Second Code of the King. The wealth of the monastery, which already existed at that time, emerges from a document from 1093. The document also contains a catalog of books that contains around two hundred works that were then available in the monastery library. Ladislaus' successor, Koloman (around 1070–1116), received the general of the First Crusade , Gottfried von Bouillon (around 1060–1100), on Martinsberg in 1097 .

The abbot Uros, who was appointed from 1207 to 1243, was one of the most important monastery heads of the Middle Ages. Among other things, he increased the monastery property many times over and created legal certainty. Possibly due to the approaching Mongolian storm , he had the most important eighty documents of the monastery copied into the so-called Liber Ruber (red book). Today this collection is the oldest collection of documents in Hungary. The abbot traveled to Rome five times and accompanied King Andrew II (around 1177–1235) on the Fifth Crusade to the Holy Land . In addition, he defended the monastery victoriously against the attacking Mongols . After the old monastery church was damaged and dilapidated, Uros consecrated the 50-meter-long, three-aisled early Gothic church in the presence of the king at the end of 1224, which has largely been preserved to this day. In addition to Hungarian craftsmen, specialists from the Upper Rhine and northern France were presumably also commissioned with the work, including a crypt . The Porta Speciosa , the only surviving early Gothic side portal in Hungary with five double columns and arches richly decorated with foliage , also belongs to the building . It leads from the cloister into the church. 1994 of the cloister one in which it was at the members of the church wall luccanischen standing tradition Volto Santo - fresco discovered in the 14/15. Century.

  • Medieval buildings and components

  • View of the high altar in the monastery church

  • In front of the high altar

  • The Porta Speciosa with one of Ferenc Storno in the 19th century. designed, neo-Gothic door

In 1472 King Matthias Corvinus (1443–1490) claimed the abbey for himself and in 1486 had the Gothic cloister built in its current form. For this purpose, among other things, a new reinforcement wall was built along the church wall, which covered the Volto Santo . Due to the load-bearing construction of this upstream wall, the fresco cannot be fully exposed to this day.

Early modern times to the present

With the advance of the Ottomans during the Turkish Wars, the churches and monasteries in Hungary came under great pressure and were destroyed many times. Priests and religious had to flee. During this time, Pannonhalma was converted into a border fortress, but in 1594 the attackers succeeded in capturing the Martinsberg during their campaign against Győr . As early as 1598, the Ottomans were driven out again by an imperial army and the depopulated region was liberated.

The devastated Pannonhalma was repopulated by ten monks in 1639. The first post-war abbot from 1639 to 1647 was Mátyás Pálffy, who came from the Lower Austrian Cistercian monastery of Heiligenkreuz . The arduous reconstruction work and resettlement measures in the monastery properties were hit hard by the renewed advance of the Ottomans in 1683. Again the marauding attackers devastated Pannonhalma before they could finally be defeated. The Benedictines, who returned in 1683, again found a desert of rubble, because not only siege and conflagration, but also an earthquake had affected the buildings. Only the church survived the state of emergency well. But a rebuilding of the monastic infrastructure and the buildings failed due to the persistent lack of money. In order to remedy this, the worst consequences of the Turkish invasion had to be compensated for: the massive loss of population and the associated large-scale desertification of the monastery land. Therefore, new settlers were first brought into the country, villages rebuilt and the economy stimulated, so that reconstruction can then begin.

The baroque monastery building

The Martinsberg Community celebrated its 700th anniversary under Archabbot Egyed Karner, who was in office from 1699 to 1708. On this occasion he had the staircase to the lower church adapted to the Romanesque architectural style and the Porta Speciosa renovated. These measures, which are based on historical forms, are unique in Hungarian baroque architecture.

The subsequent head of the monastery, Celesztin Göncz (1709–1722), began the Baroque expansion in 1714 with the construction of the Chapel of Our Lady with the crypt below, but further building projects came after the outbreak of the Rákóczi uprising (1703–1711), which was directed against the Habsburg domination Lagging. Therefore, a new baroque monastery was only built under Archabbot Benedek Sajghó (1722–1768). Particularly noteworthy is the lavishly furnished refectory designed by the architect Márton Atanáz Wittwer. Göncz was the first to be buried in the crypt of the women's chapel, the last resting place of the monks to this day. Originally the chapel was the parish church of the non-Hungarian-speaking residents who lived near the abbey. The beautiful baroque interior was designed under Archabbot Benedek Sajghó (1722–1768). The altarpiece of the main altar depicts the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In 1865 the building was renovated in a romantic style.

In 1786 the monastery, like all Benedictine monasteries in Hungary, was dissolved by Emperor Joseph II . In 1802 the order was able to become active again and devote itself to its new, compulsory task - primarily teaching. One of the most prestigious boarding schools in Hungary still exists in the monastery today.

In 1825 the foundation stone for a new classical library was laid, which already proved to be too small at the time of construction, which is why an oval hall was added from 1832 according to the plans by János Páckh. The paintings in the library, populated exclusively by ancient artists and intellectuals, reflect the spirit of the Enlightenment in the 19th century. The rapidly growing book holdings were steadily expanded, particularly through purchases from dissolved monasteries in Germany. Today the monastery has a dozen codices, around three hundred incunabula and around three hundred thousand volumes. After the library was completed, the construction of a new 55 meter high church tower began.

  • Classicist buildings and components

  • Library

  • The oval library extension

  • Pallas Athene on the large ceiling fresco in the library

  • Bell tower of the monastery church

Between 1868 and 1886 the Sopron architect Ferenc Storno implemented his ideas of the Hungarian Middle Ages on the church and in the cloister. In the course of the nationwide enthusiasm for its own early history, the baroque and classicist fixtures in the church were exchanged for neo-Gothic furnishings that he designed himself. This also included new, historicizing glass windows, frescoes and sculptures. The architect freed the church from the superimpositions of the centuries, exposed the Gothic window reveals in the cloister and installed a tracery he had designed . Much of this work was removed during a renovation in the early 1960s.

  • Work by Ferenc cancellation

  • Stained glass window with Saint Martin

  • Stained glass window with idealized Gothic decoration

  • Ceiling frescoes in the monastery church

  • Neo-Gothic pulpit

  • Neo-Gothic tracery in the historical reveals with glass windows in the cloister

On August 23, 1945, Crown Princess- Widow Stephanie of Austria-Hungary died in the abbey and was buried in the crypt of the collegiate church. Her husband, Prince Elemér Lónyay , died in Budapest on July 29, 1946 and was also buried in Pannonhalma. After 1945 all monasteries in Hungary were nationalized. Under restricted conditions, but with continuation of the teaching activity, the order was able to survive this time up to the “turning point” and has since devoted itself again to its traditional tasks in church and society.

The Benedictines have also been serving the 15 parish offices in the area since 1989 and the monastic life of Bakonybél and Tihany is starting again.

On July 17, 2011, the heart of the late last Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary, Otto Habsburg-Lothringen , was buried here.

The Territorial Abbey of Pannonhalma is the owner of an approx. 500 hectare farm and self-hunting in the northern Burgenland municipality of Deutsch Jahrndorf in Austria.

More buildings

Benedictine high school

View of the monastery from the boarding area belonging to the grammar school . On the right the school building erected in 1939.

The last Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation , Franz II , had the Benedictine order restored in 1802 and appointed Krizosztom Novák Archabbot. According to the restitution certificate issued at the time, the order committed itself to take over nine high schools and one common school in Hungary. As a result, the training of teachers and educators from within one of the priority tasks of the Benedictines in Pannonhalma. From 1884 until the communist nationalization of the schools in 1948, the teacher training institute on Martinsberg was authorized to take the seminarians' exams and to issue the certificate of appointment.

In 1938 the Hungarian government decided under Prime Minister Pál Teleki to set up an Italian-oriented high school with boarding school in Pannonhalma, which opened in 1939. At the same time, construction began on the last large structure to be erected at the monastery, which was to be used as a school and boarding school building. A new gate entrance and the so-called Hóman Bastion belonged to the building . Lajos Hidasi and Tibor Kiss presented the designs for the buildings. In doing so, they were based on Italian modernism at the time.

In 1948 teaching in Pannonhalma had to be stopped due to the changed political situation. As a result, the communist regime abolished the Hungarian religious orders between June and July 1950 and interned their members. An agreement concluded in August 1950 at least spared the dissolution of the Benedictines on Martinsberg. Now eight Catholic high schools were allowed to operate again, including a. in Pannonhalma and Győr . However, numerous monks of the monastery were brought before the regime's show trials and were sent to prisons, and around 30 brothers fled abroad. Only in the following decades did the rulers come to terms with the monastery community.

After the fall of the Wall in 1989, parallel lessons in the six- and four-year model were introduced - depending on the talent and capabilities of the students, some of whom came from abroad. In 1995 the school and boarding wing were completely renovated. Today over 300 pupils attend the Benedictine grammar school and the technical secondary school for church music, the majority live in the boarding school.

Millennium Monument

In 1896, seven millennium monuments were erected to commemorate the seven Hungarian tribes, one of them in Pannonhalma, in honor of the 1000th anniversary of the conquest of Hungary. The building was inaugurated in 1897 and rebuilt in its present form in 1937/38.

Arboretum and herb garden

The history of the arboretum goes back to the founding time of the archabbey. Numerous recipes in Pannonhalma in the 17th and 18th centuries. Active pharmacy and doctors of the Benedictines have been preserved. In 1830 there were 80 tree and shrub species in the arboretum, in 1840 Fábián Szeder designed an English garden from them. By Herb the number of species was increased to over 1,200, part of which comes just before a few places in the country.

Winery

In the 2000s, after a forced break, the Archabbey took over the tradition of vine and wine culture, which is as old as the monastery. To process the grapes, a new complex was built at the southeastern foot of St. Martin's Mountain. This consists of the press house and the cellar on an area of ​​2200 m². From the yield of the 52 hectare vineyard, around 300,000 bottles of wine are produced annually using modern, gentle winemaking technology.

Abbey restaurant and wine bar "Viator"

In May 2010 a new visitor center was opened on Kosaras Hill. The building at the foot of the Archabbey contains the restaurant and wine bar "Viator", a conference hall and an underground car park and is designed in a traditional and modern style. In 2011 it received a “Level Award for Architecture”.

List of abbots and archabbots

  • Rasia (around 1015)
  • Maurus of Pannonhalma (1034-1036)
  • David (around 1131)
  • Raphael (around 1153)
  • Uros (1207-1243)
  • Favus (1252-1265)
  • Siegfried (1355-1365)
  • László Czudar (around 1372)
  • Władysław of Kujawy (1377-1379)
  • István (1380–1398)
  • Miklós Dobói (1422–1438)
  • Johann Vitez (1467–1472)
  • Máté Tolnai (1500–1534)
  • Matthias Pálffy (1638–1647)
  • Placid Magger (1647-1667)
  • Placid Lendvay (1689-1699)
  • Egyed Karner (1699–1708)
  • Benedek Sajghó (1722–1768)
  • Samuel Vajda (1768–1795)
  • Dániel Somogyi (1795–1801)
  • Krizosztom Novák (1802-1828)
  • Mór Czinár (1829–1841)
  • Mihály Rimely (1842–1865)
  • Krizosztom Kruesz (1865–1885)
  • Kolos Vaszary (1885-1891)
  • Lipót Fehér (1892-1910)
  • Tibor Hajdu (1910-1918)
  • Remig Bárdos (1920-1932)
  • Krizosztom Kelemen (1933–1950)
  • Pàl Sárközy (1951–1957)
  • Norbert Legányi (1957–1969)
  • András Szennay (1973–1991)
  • Imre Asztrik Várszegi (1991-2018)
  • Cirill Tamás Hortobágyi (since 2018)

World Heritage

In 1996 the Archabbey and its surroundings were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

See also

literature

  • Csaba László, Ernö Marosi, Imre Takács, Szilárd Papp, Pál Lövei, Árpád Mikó, Tünde Wehli (authors): Pannonhalma. The Benedictine Archabbey in Hungary; art history studies for the millennium. (Selection of art historical contributions from the Mons Sacer catalog 996-1996, Pannonhalma 1000 éve , Vol. 1–3). In: Acta historiae artium Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 38.Budapest 1996.
  • Asztrik Várszegi : The History of the Hungarian Benedictine Congregation from 1916 to 1996 . In: Erbe und Arbeits , 72 (1996), pp. 5-8.

Web links

Commons : Territorial Abbey of Pannonhalma  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Szilveszter Solymos: Pannonhalma. A travelguide. Archabbey of Pannonhalma, 2010, ISBN 978-963-9053-86-1 , p. 7.
  2. ↑ a b Szilveszter Solymos: Pannonhalma. A travelguide. Archabbey of Pannonhalma, 2010, ISBN 978-963-9053-86-1 , p. 8.
  3. ↑ a b Chronology of the story of Pannonhalma. In: Acta historiae artium Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, 38. Vol. 1-4, Budapest 1996, p. 3.
  4. ↑ Szilveszter Solymos: Pannonhalma. A travelguide. Archabbey of Pannonhalma, 2010, ISBN 978-963-9053-86-1 , p. 9.
  5. ↑ a b Szilveszter Sólymos: Pannonhalma. A travelguide. Archabbey of Pannonhalma, 2010, ISBN 978-963-9053-86-1 , p. 11.
  6. ↑ Szilveszter Solymos: Pannonhalma. A travelguide. Archabbey of Pannonhalma, 2010, ISBN 978-963-9053-86-1 , pp. 12-13.
  7. ↑ a b Szilveszter Sólymos: Pannonhalma. A travelguide. Archabbey of Pannonhalma, 2010, ISBN 978-963-9053-86-1 , p. 14.
  8. ↑ Szilveszter Solymos: Pannonhalma. A travelguide. Archabbey of Pannonhalma, 2010, ISBN 978-963-9053-86-1 , p. 17.
  9. ↑ Szilveszter Solymos: Pannonhalma. A travelguide. Archabbey of Pannonhalma, 2010, ISBN 978-963-9053-86-1 , pp. 20-22.
  10. ↑ Szilveszter Solymos: Pannonhalma. A travelguide. Archabbey of Pannonhalma, 2010, ISBN 978-963-9053-86-1 , p. 22.
  11. ↑ a b György Kelényi: buildings and construction plans of the Pannonhalma Abbey in the 18th century. In: Acta historiae artium Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, 38. Vol. 1-4, Budapest 1996, pp. 117-126; here p. 117.
  12. ↑ István Genthon, Reinhardt Hootz: Art monuments in Hungary. German art publisher. Munich, Berlin 1974, p. 416.
  13. ↑ Szilveszter Solymos: Pannonhalma. A travelguide. Archabbey of Pannonhalma, 2010, ISBN 978-963-9053-86-1 , p. 23.
  14. ↑ a b c d e f g Printed publication of the Archabbey of Pannonhalma, German-language edition, created in 2012 (available for visitors).
  15. ^ Szilveszter Solymos: Pannonhalma. A travelguide. Archabbey of Pannonhalma, 2010, ISBN 978-963-9053-86-1 , pp. 24-27.
  16. ↑ Szilveszter Solymos: Pannonhalma. A travelguide. Archabbey of Pannonhalma, 2010, ISBN 978-963-9053-86-1 , p. 29.
  17. ↑ Szilveszter Solymos: Pannonhalma. A travelguide. Archabbey of Pannonhalma, 2010, ISBN 978-963-9053-86-1 , p. 24.
  18. ↑ Szilveszter Solymos: Pannonhalma. A travelguide. Archabbey of Pannonhalma, 2010, ISBN 978-963-9053-86-1 , pp. 33-35.
  19. ↑ Szilveszter Solymos: Pannonhalma. A travelguide. Archabbey of Pannonhalma, 2010, ISBN 978-963-9053-86-1 , pp. 36–37.
  20. ↑ Szilveszter Solymos: Pannonhalma. A travelguide. Archabbey of Pannonhalma, 2010, ISBN 978-963-9053-86-1 , pp. 38-39.

Coordinates: 47 ° 33 ′ 12 "  N , 17 ° 45 ′ 39"  E