The only surviving southern tower of the monastery church of Herpály, now known as the Csonkatorony, is a listed monument, located on the eastern border of Berettyóújfalu, in a hill called Klastrom-hill.  Since 1844, the land had been the property of the Tardy family, whose activities were closely linked to the fate of the remains of the church.

The first reports about the church ruin date back to 1806, when the historian and teacher Kereszturi József Alajos saw the standing remains of the nave and the chapel, as well as the two towers. He also noted that the building had been once surrounded by a moat. The triple rampart and the two decaying strong oak pillars of the bridge that connected the village to the monastery were still visible in 1896, although the deep ditches were dug by the landowner Tardy Elek around 1858. The fate of the remaining walls was not good either: in 1842, the 12-metre-high north tower was deemed unsafe, so it was demolished and its bricks were built into the foundation of the organ of the Berettyóújfalju Reformed Church. In 1854, the upper floor of the south tower was in such a state that it was feared that it would fall down, so it was demolished, but before that the owner had a watercolour painted. During the aforementioned landscaping in 1858, the remains of the walls were destroyed, their bricks were removed and the foundations were buried in the earth. It was then that the image of the lonely, stunted tower as we know it today was formed. In the autumn of 1878, the famous archaeologist of the time, Rómer Flóris visited the ruin, which not only resulted in the first authentic, professionally based description of the ruin, but also led to plans for an excavation in the near future. He was accompanied on his journey by the painter Storno Ferenc, who also drew a sketch of the tower as it was at the time. The planned excavation was finally carried out because of the poor condition of the ruins: first on the initiative of the landowner Tardy Sándor in the autumn of 1899, and then in the winter of 1902, on behalf of the Bihar County Archaeological and Historical Society, under the leadership of Zsák Adolf. With the help of the community of Berettyóújfalu and the Tardy family, the first conservation works were carried out: the gaps were filled and boarded up, and the tower was roofed. By 1940, the tower had deteriorated again, and in 1944 it was hit by a bomb, which caused catastrophic damage not only to the roof but also to the entire north wall, almost the entire west wall and the south-east corner. In 1959, the church tower, close to the total collapse, was restored through a social effort. The complete excavation of the church and the documentation of the architectural details, as well as the restoration works, which also allowed the presentation of the ruins, took place between 1972 and 1976. In the last year, 28 brick-framed, disturbed tombs were excavated in the area outside the southern wall of the monastery, and pottery fragments from the 9^th – 12^th centuries were found in the grave soil. In an undisrupted female burial, a denarius of Géza II (1141-1162) was placed in the right hand of the deceased, which proves that the church was constructed after the mid-12th century. Very few sources have remained on the history of the church. It can be assumed that the church was totally destroyed in consequence of the Tatar invasion. As a result of the restoration, excavation and research work carried out between 1972 and 1976, the excavation and restoration specialists discovered the floor plan of a large representative monastery church with three naves, a rectilinear sanctuary with twin western towers. Unfortunately, the cathedral has been destroyed, but the closest parallel to the Csonkatorony in Bihar is the tower of Belényesszentmiklós, which has also survived as a lone tower, and which is similar in terms of its building material, masonry, window design and structure. According to architectural parallels with the plan and the location of the small cemetery south of the monastery, the brick-framed burial custom and the denarius found in the hand of the woman buried here, the monastery in Herpály could be built between 1170 and 1220. Its construction is mainly attributed to the Benedictines and Premonstratensians. In the past decades, no new and valuable data came to light concerning the founder of the monastery church, the person who built it, or the religious affiliation of the monks who once lived there.