Monastery

The Archabbey, which has a history of more than a thousand years, was built on the almost 300 metre high hill located at the meeting point of Bakony and the Little Hungarian Plain, and is easily visible from a distance. Within the walls of the imposing complex, now the same order of Benedictine monks live and work, following the intellectuality of the Rule of Saint Benedict of Nursia (480–547), for whom Grand Prince Géza, the father of King Saint Stephen founded the monastery in 996. The Benedictine monks who lived in the monastery which was erected in honour of Saint Martin of Tours, played a significant role in both the establishment of the Christian Europe of the Middle Ages and in the handing down of classic civilisation. Besides its pastoral role, education became central to the life of the order from the beginning of the 19th century. The modern name of Pannonhalma also dates back to this time, when it first emerged in the correspondence of the poet Ferenc Kazinczy and the Benedictine monk Izidor Guzmics, as the Hungarian name for the Latin Mons Sacer Pannoniae. The Archabbey of Pannonhalma and its surroundings, a highly significant religious, cultural and educational centre of Hungary, was pronounced part of the World Heritage in 1996.