Tens of thousands of centuries-old books are being removed from the shelves of Hungary’s Pannonhalma Archabbey as restoration workers race to save them from a devastating beetle infestation threatening to erase a millennium of history.
The sprawling Benedictine monastery, perched on a hill in northwestern Hungary, has stood as one of the country’s foremost centres of learning for more than 1,000 years. Today it is both a UNESCO World Heritage site and custodian of Hungary’s oldest book collection, treasures now under siege from a tiny but voracious enemy.
A race to protect priceless volumes
Around 100,000 handbound books, roughly a quarter of the library’s vast 400,000-volume collection, are being carefully packed into crates and sealed for disinfection after the presence of drugstore beetles was discovered during routine cleaning.
The small insects, also called bread beetles, are normally found in dried grains and spices. But their taste for the gelatin and starch-based adhesives in old books has left parts of the collection riddled with holes and dust.
“This is an advanced insect infestation detected in several parts of the library,” said Zsófia Edit Hajdu, chief restorer on the project. “We’ve never encountered such a degree of infection before. The entire collection must be treated at once.”
Library staff first noticed unusual dust on shelves and burrow holes in book spines before opening volumes to find chewed-through pages, a shocking sight in an abbey that has weathered everything from Ottoman invasions to world wars over the centuries.
A thousand years of cultural memory
Founded in 996, four years before the Kingdom of Hungary itself was established, the abbey has been a religious and cultural beacon for Central Europe for over a millennium. Its library contains some of Hungary’s earliest written records and unique historical works.
“It is dizzying to think there was a library here a thousand years ago,” said Ilona Ásványi, the library’s director. “Every time I enter, I feel humbled by the responsibility of preserving Hungary’s first book catalogue.”
Among the most precious items are 19 medieval codices, including a 13th-century Bible, several hundred manuscripts that predate the printing press, and tens of thousands of early printed books from the 16th century. While the rarest works are stored separately and remain unaffected, Ásványi said any loss diminishes cultural heritage.
“When I see a book chewed up by a beetle, I feel that even if the text is replaceable, a piece of culture is lost forever,” she said.
Suffocating the infestation
The disinfection process involves sealing the crates of books in hermetically closed plastic sacks filled with pure nitrogen, removing all oxygen. After six weeks in this oxygen-free environment, the beetles are expected to be eradicated.
Before being returned to their shelves, each book will be carefully vacuumed, inspected, and, if necessary, set aside for further restoration.
The library hopes to reopen early next year.
Climate change a likely culprit
The abbey believes climate change may have contributed to the infestation. Rising temperatures in Hungary allow beetles to reproduce more quickly and complete more life cycles each year, Hajdu explained.
“Higher temperatures are favourable for insects,” she said. “In the past we mostly dealt with mould, but I think insect infestations will become more common with global warming.”
A sacred duty
For Ásványi, the work is about more than conservation… it’s a spiritual obligation rooted in Benedictine tradition.
“The Rule of Saint Benedict says all the monastery’s property should be treated as sacred,” she said. “I feel deeply the responsibility of preserving these treasures.”
