Travelling by local train from Györ, Pannonhalma monastery can be seen from afar. Amidst the grass lands a hill with a conspicuous building on top suddenly appears. I kept turning my head to look at this attractive sight, while the train slowly turned its way. This must be it!

As is the case with almost every monastery on earth there's a climb involved to actually get there. From the Pannonhalma railway station it's about half an hour into town, and then another twenty minutes up to the monastery's visitor center. It's sometimes hard to estimate the popularity of a WHS - some are major tourist sites and many others are obscure monuments seldom visited by the general public. Pannonhalma fits in the first category: it has a large car park for tour buses, a restaurant and there were about 50 other visitors on my tour.

The monastery complex can only be visited with a guided tour. This starts off with a video in which some of the monks explain the lives they live at Pannonhalma. Education is a big part of their life.

The tour then takes us to the main building. On the outside, the 19th-century tower is the most impressive sight. It has a very colourful mosaic picture above the gate.

Inside the church it is rather dark, the only light coming from the glass-tiled windows. The church floor has three levels: for the priests, the monks and the faithful.

The most impressive part of the monastery I found was its library. It was built at the beginning of the 19th century and holds about 400.000 books. It's like a ballroom for books, enclosed in cabinets two stories high that cover all sides. The ceiling holds a portrait of Pallas Athene, the ancient Greek goddess of wisdom.