Documents from Siena in Pannonhalma

The periodic exhibition entitled Abbot Uros and His Work puts on show three documents, which are kept in the Siena State Archives. The documents were brought to Pannonhalma by Cinzia Cardinali, the Director of the Archives; she visited our Archives as well. The letters were written on 2 and 3 February 1242. They were sent to the pope in Rome; the first one by Abbot Uros and his monastic community from Pannonhalma, the second one by the same people and the Benedictine abbots in Hungary, the third one by the spiritual and temporal notabilities, who “survived the Tartars”. In these documents, they asked for help from the pope, and provided a detailed, dramatic description of the horrible devastation by the Tartars. The third letter gives a list of the fortified places, which withstood the invasion and whose walls sheltered refugees (Székesfehérvár, Esztergom, Veszprém, Győr, Pannonhalma, Tihany, etc.). The provost of Székesfehérvár and some Franciscan friars set off with the three letters, however, they only got as far as Siena. The documents were preserved for succeeding generations in the Dominican Convent of the Tuscan city, and they have been transferred from here to where they are kept today.