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

Angol nyelvű összefoglaló

octagonal pillars, the application of cross-vaults, the gates decorated with jamb-figures, the leaf-bud and foliage caitals appearing in the upper region, the pointed terminated, arcaded cornices of the nave show early Gothic features. The north French sculptural arts mediated the new achievements of Gothicism to the far away lying countries, too. The Vertes gate cannot be compared, as for its size, to the gate of the French cathedral, but in spite of this, it can be regarded as a distant influence of it. The church bears relations with several Hungarian monuments (Esztergom, Kalocsa, Gyulafehérvár, Karcsa, Bény, Somogyvár, Pusztaszer, Pannonhalma, Pilisszentkereszt), particularly with the Esztergom workshop it tallies in more aspects. In spite of the similarities each monument is an independent work of art, they are not uniform buildings, they differ from each other in their own way. Perhaps, it is the first part or the first quarter of the 13th century when everything is completed on the building what the Romanesque style had created, formed. This is a synthetizing period bearing in itself at the same time the newly emerging style, the Gothicism. On basis of the available data we can conclude that the building of the church had already begun in the life of Ugrin II. The operations were interrupted by the death of the archbishop in 1204, but later continued by his relation and inheritor, farm-bailiff Miklós I. This explains the change of plan executed on the building. The completion of the construction can be placed on the period between 1214 and 1230, to the work of which several workshops must have contributed. To the western facade of the church a one-story porch was erected, on the northern side the two wings of the cloister were built out. On basis of the existing details on the eastern wing and the pieces included in the pulled down building-parts secondary walling we can draw a conclusion to the Roman Times cloister. On the western side the structures of the cloister were shaped in such a way that the walls of the Roman Tunes cloister were used, and were extended to the south. On the northern side there was no wing, only an outer wall extended to the wall of the 12th century church. Traces of an ambulatory were not found. The building time of the Roman Times cloister can be placed on basis of the archeological observations and details on the second quarter of the 13th century. At the end of the 13th century the Csák family broke into many branches, their role in the Vértes decreased during the reign of Károly Róbert. In the course of the 14th century their Vértes castles and estates (Gesztes, Vitány, etc.) came into the possession of the king and the hill became the favourite hunting-field of the kings, the castles were turned into hunting seats. The monastery belonged to the Veszprém diocese of Esztergom archdiocese. An abbot called Miklós was mentioned in 1333 during the papal tithe collection. Nagy Lajos and King Zsigmond supported the abbey. An example for this is that Nagy Lajos endowed half of the Tata town toll to them. The splendid stoves of the Nagy Lajos and Zsigmond era erected in the cloister also reinforce this. Subsequent to the death of King Zsigmond the Rozgonyi family held the Vértes castles as pledges, as for the advowson, they took charge of it as a territorial extra, and exercised over the abbey. The situation of the abbey from the middle of the 15th century had been gradually declining. The owners of the Vértes castles from the second part of the 15th century were the Újlaki family, presumably they were also the patrons of the abbey as well. Namely, Bosnian King Újlaki Miklós wrote a petition to the Pope in 1475 concerning the cloister, the structures of which deteriorated, the income was low, and only two monks