There has been a Benedictine community on Tihany Peninsula, jutting into Lake Balaton, for more than 900 years, writes Dr Richárd Korzenszky OSB, Prior of Tihany Abbey.
'Like all old churches, Tihany is aligned with the rising sun. Destruction and revival have overtaken it on several occasions down the centuries. It contains the grave of the king who founded it, Andrew I, whose tomb is one of Hungary's important memorials. Above the medieval crypt is a richly ornamented Baroque church that embodies the revival after destruction.'
The Tihany Peninsula has an area of only 12 sq. km, and when it was first inhabited, it was still an island. Even today, there is only a low neck of land attaching it to the north shore of Lake Balaton. The flora includes an admixture of Mediterranean plants, including some relic populations.
Still visible in the steep wall of the Old Castle are prehistoric artificial caves, later used by medieval hermits. The Romans have bequeathed Tihany traces of a watchtower.
King Andrew chose the highest point on the peninsula when he started to build his abbey in 1055. He presented it to the Benedictine Order, dedicating it to the Virgin Mary and a 4th-century bishop, St Aignan (Anianus), on whose relics at Orleans the early Frankish kings swore when concluding a solemn agreement.
Andrew agreed with those, to quote the parchment Deed of Foundation of Tihany Abbey, who 'realized in their counsel, prudence and diligence that the things which the sons of man have rightly decided should always be commemorated by the hand of scribes in legible letters, lest decayed age cause their successors in latter days to forget them.'
This deed has gained immortality because the detailed Latin description of the king's endowment contains 58 different words and place names in Hungarian, including some connected phrases. (An example: FEHERUUARU REA MENEH HODU UTU REA-up to the military road to Fehérvár.) This makes it the oldest surviving original record of the language.
The crypt, with its squat Romanesque columns, dates from the time of the abbey's foundation. The buildings were strengthened after the devastating visitation by the Mongols in 1241-42. Indeed, after the disastrous defeat against the Ottoman Turks at Mohács in 1526, the monastic buildings were incorporated into a border castle. (The Hungarian Diet voted funds for its maintenance on several occasions.)
By that time, the monks had dispersed and the 'cultivated and fallow lands, vineyards, fields, serfs, servants' etc. so painstakingly bequeathed by Andrew I had passed to the castle instead. Even the abbey was converted into part of the castle in 1684. However, after the Turkish danger had passed, the Vienna Military Council feared that the castle might fall into the hands of the Hungarians under the independence leader Prince Ferenc Rákóczi II and had it destroyed.
The church estates were retrieved for the Benedictines by Rajmund Regondy, abbot of Altenburg, in 1701. Abbot Vilibáld Grassó, appointed in 1719, managed to build a magnificent abbey-church in Baroque style, although a fire in 1736 was a serious setback. The medieval crypt remains beneath it. Grassó's successor, Ágoston Lécs, completed the fine new monastic buildings by 1754.
The remarkable furnishings of the church were carved between 1754 and 1779, mainly by the lay brother Sebestyén Stuhlhoff. The high altar was completed in about 1757 and the side altars in subsequent years. The vaulted ceiling of the sacristy was painted by the Italian Ambrogio Dornetti in 1786 and the altarpiece of the high altar by János Novák in 1822. There is also fine late 19th-century painting in the body of the church.
After a royalist coup failed in October 1921, the last Hungarian king, Charles IV, and his consort, Queen Zita, were housed temporarily at Tihany Abbey before going into exile in Madeira.
Stuhlhoff's organ box was filled with a 12-register instrument by Silbermann of Salzburg. However, this suffered damage from a shell in 1945. Restoration was completed in 1993, with a splendid new two-manual, 24-register organ in the original box. Organ recitals are held regularly on summer evenings.

The Doll Museum of Tihany is the result of a collection process of more than 4 decades. First, just for fun, but later it became a real passion. We realized just after many years, what kind of valuable treasures were hidden on the mansarde of the okd wooden houses.

In 1993 we became aware of the fact, that this rare collection should be exposed on a steady exhibition. At that point we decided to open the Doll Museum. We were quite sure, that visitors of this exhibition will have an outstanding experience and at the same time we got even more stimulation to carry on with the collection or dolls. This exhibition includes the most remarkabel masters of this branch of Germany from the 1850's until about 1920, when manufacturing came to an end.
Wi also intend to extend the french collection. Dolls are dressed in their original dresses, including the toys and accessories of their time, Visitors can also see some original kitchen, livnig and bedroom equipments.