The church, the abbey and the Calvary compose one of the most characteristic architectural ensembles of Baroque pilgrimages in Hungary and of the Benedictine order promoting this movement. The builders of the monastic complex were inspired by the cult of Mariazell in Austria, and built their house in one of the routes of pilgrimage in the middle of the 18th century.

Between the end of the 12th century and the beginning of the 13th, a Benedictine abbey was constructed in honour of the Virgin Mary at the settlement called Dömölk in the medieval ages. According to the tradition, it was founded by Béla III. but it figures first in written sources only in 1252, that is, after the death of the king. The abbey and its church survived the whole Middle Ages without any significant alterations.

 

At the beginning of the 16th century the sources mention the abbey as being a daughter-house of the Pannonhalma Abbey. The monks deserted it in 1560. The single nave church with semicircular sanctuary and one tower on the western side, in the proximity of the village, was never again reconstructed. Its further details were discovered by archaeological excavations, and nowadays its ruins are exhibited for visitors.

The rebirth of the Benedictine order at the settlement took place in a different site. The pilgrimages to Mariazell generated a demand for a new Baroque church and abbey situated in the city centre. A Benedictine abbot, Odo Koptik had brought a copy of the devotional statue from Mariazell, and he had the present Benedictine church built between 1747 and 1748 in order to safeguard the statue. The church itself, in all its architectural details, intended to be a copy of the church of the famous pilgrimage place in Austria. In the middle of the church we find the chapel founded by count György Erdõdy, in which the dressed devotional statue is placed.

The eighteenth-century painting of the sanctuary represents the marriage ceremony of Saint Stephen and Blessed Giselle, while the paintings of the chapel altars depict Saint Imre and the education of Mary. This latter is a work of István Schaller, while the picture of Saint John Nepomuk was painted by István Dorffmaister in 1767.

 

A special mention has to be made about the space behind the apse of the church, which is a collection of objects connected to the tradition of pilgrimage. The Baroque building of the abbey doesn’t have direct connection with the church and the Baroque Calvary is also a separate architectural ensemble.

The nowadays abbey building is the residence of the City Council of Celldömölk. Its façade is decorated with a statue of Mother Mary. Its interior preserves fragments of eighteenth-century frescos and stuccoworks. The ensemble of the church, the abbey and the Calvary is one of the most characteristic monuments of Hungarian pilgrimages in the Baroque times, and represents the relationship between the pilgrimages and the Benedictine order.

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