Pécsvárad Abbey

Pécsvárad, Hungary

The Pécsvárad Abbey was a Benedictine monastery established at Pécsvárad in the Kingdom of Hungary in the first decades of the 11th century. Its patrons were the Virgin Mary and Saint Benedict of Nursia.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Pécs was established in 1009 with jurisdiction in the southern parts of Transdanubia within the Kingdom of Hungary. According to György Györffy, Pécsvárad was the center of a royal domain. The ruins of a two-storey chapel were unearthed at the monastery, but its dating is controversial: it may have been built between 997 and 1038, but an earlier or a later date neither can be excluded.

A diploma of the foundation of the Pécsvárad Abbey – which was forged in the name of King Saint Stephen I of Hungary around 1220 – states that Astrik, one of Bishop Saint Adalbert of Prague's disciplines, was the monastery's first abbot. A fragment of a Byzantine Madonna, dated to the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries, was discovered in the apse of the monastery. The fresco on the walls of the apse was made in the 12th century.

References:

Comments

Your name



Details

Founded: 11th century
Category: Religious sites in Hungary

User Reviews

Powered by Google

Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings

Historic Site of the week

Abbey of Saint-Georges

Saint-Georges de Boscherville Abbey is a former Benedictine abbey. It was founded in about 1113 by Guillaume de Tancarville on the site of an earlier establishment of secular canons and settled by monks from the Abbey of Saint-Evroul. The abbey church made of Caumont stone was erected from 1113 to 1140. The Norman builders aimed to have very well-lit naves and they did this by means of tall, large windows, initially made possible by a wooden ceiling, which prevented uplift, although this was replaced by a Gothic vault in the 13th century. The chapter room was built after the abbey church and dates from the last quarter of the 12th century.

The arrival of the Maurist monks in 1659, after the disasters of the Wars of Religion, helped to get the abbey back on a firmer spiritual, architectural and economic footing. They erected a large monastic building one wing of which fitted tightly around the chapter house (which was otherwise left as it was).