Cistercian Abbey of Zirc

Zirc Abbey is a Cistercian abbey, situated in the Diocese of Veszprém, Hungary. It seems most probable, that the foundation was made by Béla III, King of Hungary (1182). This blessed state continued for three centuries, but decadence set in before the end of the fifteenth century, and by 1526 the ravages of the Ottoman invasion of Hungary had depopulated the monastery, not one friar remaining at the end of the year. The buildings and possessions passed into the hands of laymen. In the seventeenth century (1609) it was acquired by Canon Mihály Monoszlay. Thenceforth it remained the property of ecclesiastics, and in 1659 it was given to Holweis, Abbot of the Cistercian Lilienfeld Abbey. From Heinrichau Abbey (1700) came a number of monks, who gradually restored first the monastic buildings and church (consecrated in 1745) and then regular observance in its primitive vigour. Our reconstructions visualize several eras of the edifice.