Additional Information on the Building History of the Premonstratensian Provost Church in Zsámbék Based on the Art Forms and an Investigation of the Wall Structure

The Premonstratensian monastery of Zsámbék was founded by Count Smaragd ( comes or ispán ), a descendant of the Aynard clan of France, which had settled in the region. The monastery was already mentioned in the Nineveh catalogue of 1234. In 1258 a land confirmation charter was issued, in which three descendants of the Aynards petitioned King Béla IV to confirm the donations made by their ancestors, Egyed and Count Smaragd. The two men had held important offices in Hungary in the years 1198–1222. The walls of the Premonstratensian church in Zsámbék have not yet been systematically studied, and the periodisation of its construction history has been based on the analysis of architectural details and forms, and on a critical examination of its style. From the wall fabric and from the art forms and sections, which often represent several stylistic layers, it seems possible to outline the church’s construction process and to further clarify it after a systematic wall and mortar analysis. As far as the main construction period of the church is concerned, based on the artistic forms, ornamentation of the capitals and plinth solutions, the church is dated to the first third of the 13 th century and the first half of the following third, and the details of the works can be linked to the stylistic circles of Óbuda, Buda, Pilisszentkereszt and Ipolyság (Šahy), sometimes with looser, sometimes with tighter threads.