The renewed Jesuit monastery in Balatonalmádi-Vörösberény was handed over. The building will function as an all-arts cultural center. At the opening ceremony, Péter Fekete, the State Secretary responsible for culture at the Ministry of Human Resources, highlighted that buildings that preserve the message of the old days are being renovated one by one across the country.

The monastery in Vöröberény was renovated with a government grant of about one billion forints, which, together with the neighboring St. Ignatius of Loyola Catholic Church and the former granary renovated in 2017, has become an iconic place on the Balaton shore, he added.

He recalled: in previous decades, many churches, castles, and manor buildings in Hungary were converted into gymnasiums, granaries, and swimming pools, following the Russian model. "All this happened for the reason and with the intention of ideological annihilation and the attempt to erase memories, but it could not remain like this, we could not rest on this."

As he said, according to the plans, the renovated monastery will house a local history collection, picture gallery, and museum, and together with the nearby granary, it will also host theater performances, concerts, art exhibitions, and professional conferences.

The government first provided HUF 500 million and then another HUF 400 million for the renovation of the monastery, he said. Lajos Kepli, the independent mayor of Balatonalmád, said that the granary next to the monastery will be named after the theater director Imre Kerényi, who dreamed up the Balatonalmád cultural center. The premises of the monastery will function as a background building for theater performances and as a venue for conferences.

Károly Kontrát, the region's parliamentarian from Fidesz, mentioned that the monastery was first mentioned in documents from 1758, the church was consecrated in 1779, and the granary was built in the 18th century. He said that together with Imre Kerényi, they initiated the creation of the cultural center, and now the time has come to fill the renovated building with content.

Source and image: MTI