Szentgotthárd Abbey

Szentgotthárd Abbey is a former Cistercian monastery in Szentgotthárd in Vas County in southwest Hungary, about 3 km from the Austrian border and 18 km from the Slovenian border.HistoryFoundation and Prosperity: 1183–1391In 1183, Hungarian King Béla III founded a monastery in honor of Saint Gotthard in the countryside at the confluence of the Rába and Lapincs rivers. Cistercian monks were settled there from Trois-Fontaines Abbey, France. Twelve monks arrived in Hungary, led by an abbot. With this founding the king hoped to give help to the local farmers because the Cistercians had highly developed agriculture. Béla III also gave the Cistercians the task of establishing settlements in this borderland and bringing them into the mainstream of the country. The Cistercians started to build their new monastic centre in 1184 (confirmed by archaeological excavation of the foundations of the monastery and church). The building complex itself, with its 94 m by 44 m foundations, was unambitious, but capable of further extension. The monastery started to flourish soon. In the Szentgotthárd district around the new monastery, small agricultural villages were quickly established.In 1391, King Sigismund (Zsigmond) (Affiliation: House of Luxemburg; 1361–1437) gave the right of presentation of the Monastery in Szentgotthárd to the palatine Miklós Széchy and his son. This right at first merely meant that on the occasion of war or other fighting the warriors of the monastery marched under the Széchy’s banner and they had a say in electing the abbot. Later, the patrons wielded absolute power over the monastery, which was the occasion of many abuses.