Basilica of Our Lady of Hungarians

 

The image of the small village in Börzsöny is defined by its stately Baroque buildings. The unique Hungarian monastic order, the convent church owned by the Palatines and the former monastery, which has been a prison for more than 150 years, are among the most popular attractions of the region.

The Baroque church and monastery, with the Gothic sanctuary preserved, were built between 1719-38 to the designs of the Pauline monks. The monastery stood empty during and after the Turkish wars and was used as a prison from the 1850s, with only women prisoners for the first 100 years, before men were allowed to serve their sentences from 1949. Some very illustrious people were forced to stay here, including Árpád Göncz, Tibor Déry, István Eörsi and László Mensáros.

The most beautiful part of the Baroque church is the two-storey high altar with the famous Czestochowa shrine, a replica of the Black Madonna, in the centre.