Hahót (monastery titled Antiochian ’Saint Margaret’)

The exact date of its foundation is not known. It might have been founded by Saint Ladislaus and was first named after the brook Pölöske flowing nearby. At the end of the 12th century, the king donated the area where the monastery stood to Hahót whose descendants refounded it in 1234. It had functioned till the mid 16th century, then it was destroyed. The present church of Hahót was built mostly on the footing of the medieval church. Inside the tombstone of Arnold of the founding Hahót clan can be seen in the northern sidewall, placed in a Baroque frame.

Nagykapornak (titled  “the Saviour”)

The second most significant Benedictine monastery of the county after Zalavár was founded by the Kádor clan. It was the most important monastery between 1141 and 1160 beside Zalavár. After the founding clan had died out it went over into the property of the king, later it was given away again. It was a significant facility entrusted with notarial functions. The buildings of the monastery were converted into a border fortress in the middle of the 16th century. The monks abandoned it for a period of a century and a half. The archives were carried away, later merged with the renewed archives of Zalavár. Later, the Yiddish inherited the monastery. Later on, it functioned as a school and dormitory. The frontage and the chancel of the church date back to the 12th century, the rest of the building was reconstructed in the 18th century.

Murakeresztúr (titled ‘Saint Cross’)

Both the exact time of foundation and the founder of the abbacy are unknown. It stood near the confluence of the brook Kanizsa and the river Mura. It ceased to function as an abbacy in the first half of the 16th century when it was converted into a border fortress. In 1600 it was abandoned, to be destroyed. Today, it is not even possible to identify its exact location.

Tihany and Almád

There are two more Benedictine monasteries to be mentioned which used to belong to Zala county but now they are in Veszprém county. One of them is in Tihany which was founded by King Andrew, the king himself was buried here. The other is in Almád (its remains are near Monostorapáti) which was founded by the Atyusz clan.

Csatár (titled ‘apostle Saint Peter’)

It was the Gutkeled clan which erected the earliest private-founded monastery of the present Zala county around 1138, in Csatár near Zalaegerszeg. This monastery was entrusted with notarial functions for a short time. In the 16th century, like many others, it was fortified. In 1566, the family of Zrínyi Miklós, the hero of Szigetvár were hiding among its walls. It had been destroyed before 1600. Today a Zrínyi memorial column stands to mark its place near the renovated parish-church of the village dating to the 13th-14th centuries.