Holy Cross Pauline Monastery ruins

CulturalSacred sites

In Klastrompuszta, near Kesztölc, we find the first monastery of the only Hungarian monastic order, the Palatines. The Monastery of the Holy Cross, founded in 1250, was the headquarters of the order until 1304. Its founder was the canon of Esztergom, Özséb, who kept in touch with the hermits living in the caves of the Pilis. After renouncing his title and property, he himself became a hermit. Later, by divine inspiration and in obedience to his vision, he founded the monastic order and the first monastery together with six companions. The monastery was destroyed by the Turks in 1526. The ruins were reclaimed by nature, which explains why, after the expulsion of the Turks, the Pauline monks, searching for their ruined monasteries, could not find the remains of the Holy Cross. It was only in the 1960s that archaeological excavations began in the immediate vicinity of the present-day resort, where the renovated ruins now proclaim that a monastery and church once stood.