Coronation Church

You can tell this church has a habit of collecting history. Even before you think about dates, you feel the pull of its tallest feature: the 47 meter-high tower beside the façade, topped and framed by a striking Gothic flourish—and a goat. That goat is the reason people here still call it the Kecske-templom, the “Goat Church” (German Geißkirche). It’s tied to a very specific patron, Henrik Geisel—in Hungarian sources he appears as Geisel Henrik. The goat comes from his coat of arms: “Geiss” means goat in German. And there’s a darker local tradition wrapped around the same name—Geisel Henrik is said to have sought penance after killing János Bük(i), another Sopron resident. Whether you take the story literally or as legend, the symbolism is unmistakable: the donor’s goat keeps showing up around the building, not just on the tower façade.

A gothic church with a donor’s signature

The church is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, Nagyboldogasszony—and in the local religious life it’s also known as the Bencés templom, the Benedictine church. Its official name in Hungarian is the Coronation Church in English tour-language, but you’ll hear the German connection too: the Bencés templom is also Benediktinerkirche in German.