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Saint Benoît Monastery

The burial place of Franciscus II Rákóczi and his company was the chapel of the one-time Jesuit monastery in Istanbul. Genoese Benedictines found a friary here in 1427. The monks stayed after 1453 as well, while the building turned under the ownership of the French embassy in the beginning of the 16th century. The friary was taken over by the Jesuits in 1583 who served here until their dissolution in 1773, when the Lazarists took over. After World War I, it became a French, later French-Turkish bilingual school. The chapel is currently unused except for sermons given on special occasions. Ilona Zrínyi was buried here in 1703, as well as Krisztina Bercsényi Csáky in 1723 and Franciscus II Rákóczi, Duke of Transsylvania in 1735. Their remains were returned to Hungary in 1906 and they currently lie in the Church of Saint Elisabeth in Kosice. The tombs remain maintained in the chapel. The chapel can only be visited with the permission of the French director of the French-Turkish school after pre-registration.

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E-mail:macarkulturmerkezi@mfa.gov.hu