The Pannonhalma Archabbey monastery was founded in 996 and is one of Hungary's oldest educational centers. Its library houses some of the country's oldest and most important documents. With its 400,000 volumes, the library is on the UNESCO World Heritage list of the UN agency.
The attack was discovered during a routine inspection. In the ongoing restoration work, around 100,000 hand-bound books have been taken down and placed in boxes to begin the disinfection process that will kill the small beetles that have burrowed into the books.
It's about bread beetles that are often found among dry food. But which also attract the glue made of gelatin and starch found in the books.
The beetles have been found in several places, so the entire collection is considered infected and must be treated at the same time, says the head of the restoration work Zsófia Edit Hajdu.
We have never encountered such a degree of infection before, she says.
