Mezősiné Kozák Éva: A vértesszentkereszti apátság (Művészettörténet - műemlékvédelem 5. Országos Műemlékvédelmi Hivatal, 1993)

Angol nyelvű összefoglaló

monasteries came to a further use, in many cases, as parish churches, so although with larger or smaller alterations they were reserved. These churches got a determinant and significant place in the emerging settlement pictures. They formed their surroundings according to the functions of modern life. Should it come the research of their adjacant cloisters, the presentation of them would arise many problems in many cases. The building material of the abbeys lying more distant from the settle- ments, on some deserted places, where life had terminated earlier, had been carried away by the local people. The monasteries of the Alföld (Great Hungarian Plain) remained in a rather bad condition, the historical devastations and the lack of building material were more intense there. Fortunately, in the recent years there was a possibility to excavate the earlier settlements besides the monasteries and cloisters, and the secular and church buildings of the there existing early residences. In the second chapter titled 'Data to the Abbey's History of Research' we treated with the decay of the abbey from the Turkish reconquest to our present days, and its building into scientific life. The Vértes mountains and its castles were liberated from under the Turkish rule in 1867. Though life has temporarily existed in the Abbey during the long lasting Turkish rule, according to the 1690 census its building stood in a relatively good condition. The then landowning Hochburg family offered the abbey to the Capuchins, who were invited to Mór, but the superior of the order didn't accept it owing to the distance. The abbey came to the possession of the Esterházy family of Tata in 1754. The remained written material in the family's archives gives a clear picture of the planned pull-down of the abbey. Stone was transported to the constructions of the Dad, Szendi and Pusztavám churches, then in 1794 to the Bokod Lake operations, dam and mill constructions, too. In the unified estate of Csákvár and Tata the first large-scale English garden was built. In Tata the foundation year was 1783, where in early ages the master builder was Fellner Jakab, later in 1801 Charles Moreau. He even planned some evocative structures to the sentimental landscape-park. 69 stone carvings of Vértesszentkereszt were put to the artificial ruins of the park. Parallel with the Tata constructions the Csákvár Baroque rococo castle was rebuilt, and an English garden was erected round the building. In the park a monument was raised to the memory of Esterházy János by Pálfy Mária. The column separating the abbey's inner aisles is built up with its capital, and several splendid carvings are placed into it. In the garden a cross-vaulted gate was put up from the church stones in 1799. In the abbey many dilapidations were caused by treasure-hunters, this is suggested by an 1772 municipal decision. Though Fuxhoffer Dámján protested against the dilapidations in his Monasteriology of 1803, he couldn't stop it. It was in the 19th century that people began to take an interest in the artistic value of the abbey. Rómer Flóris took notice of the abbey's values, later he drew the attention of Henszl Imre, finally it was Nácz József who wrote the first general historical, art historical work about it. In the 1930-s there are references in many works regarding the ruin, the most important observations being made by Gerevich Tibor, who places it into the Hungarian Roman Times material in his study. With the direction of Lux Géza in 1940 the architectural department of the Technical University carried out smaller researches, which were published. In the National Monuments Supervision (OMF) Photoarchives two important archaic materials and