1881–1889 Fire, restoration, and the altars leavePožiar, obnova a odchod oltárov

In 1881 a fire broke out in the little town and damaged part of the monastery; the repairs ran from 1881 to 1889 and were paid for by the Primate of Hungary, János Simor. Restoration in that century usually meant reordering as well as mending, and much of the medieval furnishing left the building for good — panels, carvings and the architectural Holy Sepulchre chest went into Hungarian collections, the chest to the Christian Museum in Esztergom, where it is today. That is why a visit here is carried by architecture and vaulting rather than by what stands inside. Whether that was rescue or removal is still argued about on both sides of the border, and both arguments have something in them.V roku 1881 vypukol v mestečku požiar, ktorý poškodil aj časť kláštorného areálu; opravy trvali od roku 1881 do roku 1889 a zaplatil ich uhorský prímas Ján Simor. Obnova v tom storočí zvyčajne znamenala nielen opravu, ale aj prerobenie, a veľká časť stredovekého zariadenia budovu navždy opustila — tabuľové maľby, rezby aj architektonizovaná truhla Božieho hrobu odišli do maďarských zbierok, truhla do Kresťanského múzea v Ostrihome, kde je dodnes. Preto návštevu nesie architektúra a klenby, a nie to, čo stojí vnútri. O tom, či išlo o záchranu, alebo o odvoz, sa na oboch stranách hranice dodnes vedú spory — a obe strany majú kus pravdy.