The Benedictine abbey church of Lébény was built between 1199 and 1203 and is one of the most outstanding and most intact monuments of Hungarian ecclesiastical architecture of the Middle Ages. From an artistic point of view, the elements of plastic art wall decorations are of exceptional value.
The church is a splendid representation of Romanesque architecture. It has three naves with semicircular apses and there are two pyramidal towers on its western façade with a gallery in between. Especially noteworthy are the carved stones decorating the building, like for example the inimitable carved ornaments of the main entrance and the southern side portal.
The abbey survived the Middle Ages without any significant alterations, but in 1478 it burnt down. The monks returned after the catastrophe but when flames consumed the monastery for a second time in 1563, it became abandoned definitely.The uninhabited buildings were given to the Jesuits of Győr, and in 1638 they built the new, vaulted parts of the church. The original medieval vaulting remained unharmed in very few places only, for instance in the lower part of the towers.
The interior was transformed into Baroque during the 18th century. The buildings of the abbey disappeared already in the 19th century, but the church continued to function as a parish church of the village nearby. In the second half of the 19th century the Office of Protection of Historical monuments recognised the special architectural importance of the church and several restorations have taken place since and considerable research by art historians focused on the building.
References:The historic city of Trogir is situated on a small island between the Croatian mainland and the island of Čiovo. Since 1997, it has been included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites for its Venetian architecture.
Trogir has 2300 years of continuous urban tradition. Its culture was created under the influence of the ancient Greeks, and then the Romans, and Venetians. Trogir has a high concentration of palaces, churches, and towers, as well as a fortress on a small island. The orthogonal street plan of this island settlement dates back to the Hellenistic period and it was embellished by successive rulers with many fine public and domestic buildings and fortifications. Its beautiful Romanesque churches are complemented by the outstanding Renaissance and Baroque buildings from the Venetian period.
Trogir is the best-preserved Romanesque-Gothic complex not only in the Adriatic, but in all of Central Europe. Trogir's medieval core, surrounded by walls, comprises a preserved castle and tower and a series of dwellings and palaces from the Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque periods. Trogir's grandest building is the church of St. Lawrence, whose main west portal is a masterpiece by Radovan, and the most significant work of the Romanesque-Gothic style in Croatia.