The history of the library is inseparable from the almost 500-year history of priestly education in Hungary. In the 16th century, when the Archdiocese of Esztergom was forced to relocate to Nagyszombat (today’s Trnava, Slovakia) due to the Ottoman invasion, Archbishop Miklós Oláh founded the first Hungarian seminary there in 1566. This date is also considered the founding year of the library.
Over the centuries, the library—like the Hungarian Catholic Church—suffered the hardships of repeated relocations and decades of religious persecution, which caused significant destruction in its book collection. Following the opening of the so-called Great Seminary in 1865, designed by the renowned architect József Hild, the library and seminary were moved into the new building. By the end of the 19th century, the library's holdings had grown to 10,000 volumes. Today, the library continues to safeguard the Archbishop’s Seminary collection as a depositary library, thereby ensuring continuity, honouring the founder’s intentions, and supporting the academic training of today’s clergy.
After the Second World War, the Great Seminary became a Russian military hospital, and its current reading room - formerly the chapel – was turned into a gym and basketball court. As a result, the library collection was first relocated to the nunnery in Víziváros, and later, along with the seminary, to a building on the banks of the Little Danube.
Finally, in the summer of 2006, the institution packed its entire book collection into 3,000 boxes and returned it to its rightful place in the now-modernised Old Seminary, today known as the Saint Adalbert Centre. The library holds a collection of around 6,000 early printed works from before the 1800s – including incunabulas, fragments and antiquities – as well as manuscripts and documents. Among its most valuable items are manuscript pages from the Hungarian translation of the Bible by György Káldi, recovered from a reused binding board. The majority of the collection consists of books and journals on modern theological literature – among other disciplines – primarily in Hungarian, Latin, German, English, French and Italian. The online catalogue of the library, with a total of 60 thousand volumes, is accessible on this website , at a search interface common with other Esztergom church collections.
Enrolling in the library is free of charge, and although only teachers and full-time students of the Theological College of Esztergom are entitled to borrow books, on-site reading is allowed for all visitors. The beautifully furnished, galleried reading room, which can accommodate thousands of volumes, is well worth a visit—not just during temporary exhibitions. Be sure to take a peek into this unique space when visiting the St. Adalbert Centre!
