ABSTRACT
Hungarian rulers maintained relations with Byzantium through royal intermarriage and monastic connections and Kievan Rus and Bulgarian eremiticism greatly influenced Hungarian hermits. Hungary's religious culture was thus significantly affected by its position between East and West, between pagan and Christian, it had close ties with eastern Christian communities. There are many hermits' caves and cave monasteries throughout Hungary and some of the earliest and most important were founded in the mid-eleventh century. On a steep rock face overlooking the River Vah in north-western Slovakia sits the picturesque Skalka nad Vahom Monastery; within its walls is one of the oldest pilgrimage sites in the region: the cave of St Andrew-Zoerard, and his disciple St Benedict. The sacralization of landscape is a multifaceted and complex process, and Skalka nad Vahom became an important cult place because multiple factors aligned to make it so: the initial choice of the place, partially influenced by popular forms of eremiticism at the time; and monastic promotion.
