The Benedictine abbey-church of Lébény built at the beginning of the 13th century is one of the most outstanding and most intact monuments of the Hungarian ecclesiastical architecture of the Middle Ages.

 

From artistic point of view, the elements of plastic art decorating its walls are of exceptional value. The Abbey-Church of Lébény was founded between 1199 and 1203, in honour of Saint Jacob the Apostle. Their founders were bailiffs, descendents of the Gyõr clan that owned huge estates in the region. The clan continued sponsoring the abbey with considerable donations even after the act of foundation.

The church was constructed at the beginning of the 13th century, and it is, in our days, one of the most intact monuments of Hungarian ecclesiastical architecture of the Medieval Ages, and also one of the most beautiful representations of Romanesque architecture of our country. The church has three naves with semicircular apses, there are two towers on its western facade, and a gallery between the two towers.

 

Specially noteworthy are the carved stones decorating the building, like for example the inimitable carved ornaments of the western and southern portals. The abbey survived the Middle Ages without any significant alterations, but in 1478 it burnt down. After this catastrophe the monks returned, but when flames consumed the monastery – then already a daughter-house of Pannonhalma - for the second time in 1563, it became abandoned definitely.

The uninhabited buildings were given to the Jesuits of Gyõr, and it was in their time that the new, vaulted parts of the church were built. The original medieval vaulting remained unharmed only in very few places, for instance in the low part of the towers. The buildings of the abbey disappeared already in the 19th century, but the church continued functioning as parish church of the village nearby.

 

In the second half of the 19th century the Office of Protection of Historical monuments recognised the special architectural importance of the church, and since several restorations have taken place on the site and a number of researches of art historians focused on its building.
More Information on Hungarian Monasteries: Hungarian Monastic Cultural Route