### The churches of Zalavár, Somogyvár and Zsámbék
the St Adorjan Benedictian church of Zalavár The one-time Mosaburg ('Moor castle') was the residence of the Frank feudal vassal, Pribina, then his son, Kocel in the 9th century. According to legends martyr St Adorjan (Hadrianus) is buried here. Christian belief probably did not completely stop in this region. This might have been the reason for the fact that the title of the St Adorjan church, which was consecrated in the 9th century, was inherited by the Benedictine monastery founded in 1019 by King Stephen. During the reign of King Ladislaus a bailiff castle was attached to the church, which became the administrational center of Zala county. The convent of the Benedictine abbacy performed duties as a 'credible place' from the 13th century. The building complex was transformed into a fortress during the Middle Ages, and a castle in the 16-17th centuries, which was blown up after the Turkish occupation (1702). Only fragments of stone-cuttings survived from the one-time monastery in the south of the castle island of Zalavár. The ruins were reused in the constructions of the neighbouring settlements. These were part of the fortress that we know from the Italian military engineer, Gulio Turco's surveys in 1569. the Benedictine church of Somogyvár King Ladislaus founded a Benedictine monastery at Somogyvár in 1091, in the honour of St Egyed. The monastery belonged under the authority of the St Gilles abbacy. Till the beginning of the 13th century monks were only French. So the monastery played an important role in French-Hungarian intellectual relations. Its church had three naves; it was a basilica without a transcept, the chancels of which closed with semi-circular apsides. Between its towers on the facade there might have been an open hall. King Ladislaus was temporarily buried in this church († 1095). The church was rebuilt in the second half of the 12th century, then a group of stone-masons, who belonged to the Pécsvárad workshop, decorated the church.There was a special relief representing the Thornpuller: the motif of an antique sculpture was filled with Christian content in the form of a relief. The man wounded by the thorn of Sin becomes the victim of a wild animal, the symbol of Evil. The figure of Christ and Archangel Gabriel in a relief was liked by a sculptor, one of those who carved the decorations of the entrances to the crypt, the one who carved the story of Samson, so either he or one of his students made the fragment of Somogyvár. the Premontrean monastery of Zsámbék - the middle of the 13th century Originally it was a village church containing the tombs of the French Ainard family. The Premontrean abbey was built around in the 1220s. The constructions were probably completed in the middle of the 13th century. The church of Zsámbék belongs to clan churches, and it is the latest one of that type. It had three naves, and it was a basilica without a transcept. Only the side-aisles close with semi-circular apsides. The main apsis is polygonal, in concert with Premontrean traditions. The church was divided into three naves by rows of pillars, and it was covered by a ribbed cross-vault. The pair of towers decorating the main facade were built over the first parts of the side-aisles. The choir was as wide as the three naves together, and a part of it served as a private chapel.