On Thursday, 30 May 2024, the ceremonial hall of Tökölyanum was host to the launch of the monograph ‘The Orthodox Monastery of Grábóc – Serbian Art Heritage in Hungary in the 18th Century’ by art historian Xénia Golub, PhD, published by the Serbian Orthodox Eparchy of Buda and the Serbian Ecclesiastical Museum of Szentendre, and with the help of the Petefi Cultural Agency and the Hungarian Culture Foundation. Besides the introductory remarks of His Excellency Lukijan, Bishop of Buda, the book was discussed by Assistant Under-Secretary of State for Culture Anikó Herter Krucsai, Koszta Vukovits, Head of the Serbian Ecclesiastical Museum, Antal Molnár, Director of the Institute of History, HUN-REN Research Centre for the Humanities, and Szilveszter Terdik, Senior Curator of the Museum of Applied Arts of Budapest.
This unparalleled monograph is the fruit of the author’s decades-long research undertaking, presenting the history of the Monastery of Grábóc based on various historiographical data and sources, as well as reviewing and interpreting the murals and the furnishings of the church. The book is in Hungarian, with summaries in Serbian and English, and is richly illustrated with the pictures of photographer Iván Jaksity.
Situated in Tolna County in the southwest of Hungary, the Monastery of Grábóc was founded by Orthodox monks fleeing from the Monastery of Dragović in 1587. The church was dedicated to the Archangels Saints Michael and Gabriel. In the course of its centuries-long turbulent history, the Monastery of Grábóc was the most prominent centre of Orthodox spirituality in the wider region west of the Danube. Its last flourishing was in the 18th century, when the present church was also built.
