Sights to see in Hungary: Pannonhalma - The Archabbey

In the summer of 2010, we went for a holiday to Hungary. We had been in Hungary several times before, but never visited the Archabbey of Pannonhalma. Since it was still on our list of places we wanted to see, we planned a trip.
In short: what an amazing place. Not only it is full of history, but the natural surroundings are beautifull as well. Even our (then) eleven year old daughter loved it.

There is a lot to see, e.g. the Abbey of St Martin with its famous library, the crypts below the basilica, the Porta Speciosa, the outer buildings in which an independent secondary school for boys resides, all the monuments and statues honouring famous hungarians and ofcourse the arboretum, lying just in front of the gates. Even the newly build visitors centre and restaurant, at a lower part of the castle mount is an architectural beauty.

The abbey with all accompanying estates is one of the oldest historical sites in Hungary, that still stands the test of time. It was founded in 996 by prince Géza and his son king István gave the place its privileges and estates. A complete rebuild of the complex was necessary in 1137, because everything was destroyed during occupation. In 1541 the abbey was designated an Archabbey.

I won't write much more about the history, because lots can be found on Wikipedia and other websites.

We stayed in a tiny village, called Dunaszentmiklós, near the Slovak border. From there to Pannonhalma it took us about an hour, first following the motorway M1 to Győr. On the motorway, we had to take the exit for highway 82. From there, roadsigns will show you the direction to the village and ofcourse the Archabbey of Pannonhalma. I can remember the first time I saw the abbey and monastery on top of the castle mount. It was a magnificent view.

On arrival, the first thing we saw was the newly build visitors centre and adjacent restaurant. There is enough parking space below the restaurant. In the photograph, you can see the visitors centre just to the left and the dome of the basilica on top of the hill.

To visit the Archabbey itself, you have to take a guided tour. It is not possible to wander around by yourself inside the complex. This is obvious, because some 50 monks are living there and around 300 boys in the age 12 to 18 are following gymnasium education, the highest level of secondary education in Europe. These guided tours take place on specific times and are given in Hungarian, English and German.
For more information on opening hours nowadays, please go to the English part of the Pannonhalma Archabbey website.

We had to wait for over an hour before our chosen English tour began, but that was no punishment. After an hours drive, a cup of coffee would be most welcome. Sitting on the terrace of the restaurant we had a wonderfull view of the surroundings and the town of Pannonhalma.

In the visitors centre there was a corner with two long tables full of books, that were for sale. Lovers of books as we are, it was no time spent in vain. Before the guide took us to the abbey and monastery, she showed us a video of about twenty minutes. It told us something about the history and daily live inside the complex.

Wandering around on YouTube, I found a video that gives you a great impression of the tour around the abbey. It is not mine, though.

From the visitors centre it is a ten minute walk towards the entrance of the complex. First we went over a walking bridge to the abbey hill, where a footpath through the surrounding woods was leading us upwards.

The first thing I noticed, was the heavy fortification wall surrounding all the buildings. Later on I understood, the abbey was heavily fortified in the 16^th and 17^th century because of the turkish invasions at that time. After entering through the outer gate, very soon the first statue appeared. It is in honour of St. Asztrik, who was the first abbot from 997-1015 AD.

Walking down the courtyard and turning a corner, we arrived on the central square with the main entrance to the abbey and cloister. Several doors on the central square are pieces of art, cast in bronze. Especially the doors of the main entrance and a side door with a large peacock at the top are beautifully made. The guide took us through the main entrance towards the basilica.

The first stop inside the buildings is the basilica, a beautiful combination of Romanesque, early Gothic, late Gothic and Renaissance parts. A restauration in the 1860's brought harmony to these different styles. The oldest remaining parts date from the early 13^th century and overtime abbots have added and beautified the church according to the style of their time. The oldest parts of the church are the choir, with three aisles, and the crypt directly below it. On the opposite side of the stained glass window, a impressive organ can be found. According to an article by Dr. Ferenc Lukács Áment it dates from around 1985, but there is some evidence that there was already an organ from the 15^th century onwards.

Between the basilica and the cloister there is the famous Porta Speciosa (or Ornamental Gate). The Porta has five redmarble columns on each side supporting the three arches and was constructed in the 13^th century. A more elaborate description of the Porta and its construction and symbolism can be found on Wikipedia, but then you need to be able to read Hungarian.

We weren't able to see much of the cloister itself. Sadly some areas were restricted, but we did walk in the hallways around the enclosed cloistergarden. After the cloister we went to the famous 19^th century, four stories high library.

The first thing that got my attention was the massive globe with a wall of books behind. In the photograph you can see my daughter standing in front of the globe, giving you an impression of both the size of the globe and the heigth of the library itself. Above the bookcases in the background there was another, equally heigh, row of filled bookcases. What is not visible in the overview picture of the library, are the corridors and hallways behind the bookcases. These are also full of ancient books.

The 19^th century classical library is one of Europe's richest monastical libraries with almost 400 thousand volumes to date. The collection is still being expanded on a regular basis with purchases and donations.The most valuable pieces in the library itself are the incunabula and codices. In the exhibition "Biblia Scripta" we were able to see a few of them.

The archives (seperate of the library) contain valuable documents, such as the earliest written example of the Hungarian and Finno-Ugric languages, the Tihany Abbey deed of foundation and the Pannonhalma census letter, issued around 1090 with the first Hungarian book list. In these archives also valuable collections of coins, stone, etchings and pictures are to be found. Most of these collections are sadly not accessible for the general public.

After the tour the guide brought us to the exhibition hall.

After the tour you can visit the recently built exhibition hall. On a regular basis, the abbey is organising special exhibitions. When we visited, there was an exhibition called "Biblia Scripta", about writing and scripture in the Middle Ages.

Some of the most exquisite examples of incunables and other handwritten documents of the collection were presented. Especially interesting was the explanation about the use of abbreviations in the old liturgical texts. Because lots of expressions were shortened, it is very difficult for a non-trained person to read the stories.

There was one piece, that appears funny in our time, but is completely understandable if you think of how much parchment would cost in those days. In one of the books the writing was wrapped around a giant hole in the middle.

During the whole exhibition, they explained how the monks obtained the works they wanted to copy, made their materials (ink, parchment, writing feathers, even spectacles), did their bookbindings and so on. It gave a great insight into the life of the scribes in monasteries.

The commercial side is not forgotten in the abbey. But everything is of a very high quality. We bought a jar of acacaia honey, boxes of tea and some of the fine chocolate. Also we took a few books with us about the history of the abbey and surrounding area.

My daughter was becoming tired, so we skipped a visit to the winery. Maybe another time we will go and see that also. The winery is not producing some table wines, but is renowned for its high quality. The Pannonhalma wines are sold worldwide and a very sought after item, since only around 300.000 bottles are produced each year.

Because of renovation works we weren't able to go very far into the arboretum. We only got down the upper path along the cast iron fence and a few meters down the earth path later on. I could see the whole arboretum is planted alongside the hill. There are over 400 varieties of trees and shrubs. Some are rare species only found in a limited number of regions in Hungary.

Then we went past the last building worth visiting: the Millenium monument. It is the only one surviving of seven monuments that were erected in 1896 to celebrate the Magyars' settlement in the region.