[edit]
Castle Hill panorama from Štúrovo (Párkány), Slovakia
Ottoman grave stones in the castle
Esztergom in 1595
Esztergom in 1664
Siege of Esztergom in 1683
The Battle of Párkány with Esztergom in the background, 7–9 October 1683
Siege of Esztergom in 1685
Szentgyörgymező
The cathedral with the Dark gate Péter Pázmány Street
Courthouse
The former synagogue
Franciscan church
Town Hall
Downtown as seen from the Bottyán Bridge
Watertown
"Old seminary"
Downtown
The old seminary in Esztergom after the renovations in 2006
Royal castle
Esztergom is one of the oldest towns in Hungary. Esztergom, as it existed in the Middle Ages, now rests under today's town. The results of the most recent archeological excavations reveal that the Várhegy (Castle Hill) and its vicinity have been inhabited since the end of the Ice Age 20,000 years ago. The first people known by name were the Celts from Western Europe, who settled in the region in about 350 BC. A flourishing Celtic settlement existed on the Varhegy until the region was conquered by Rome. Thereafter it became an important frontier town of Pannonia, known by the name of Salvio Mansio, Salvio, or Solva. By the seventh century the town was called Stregom and later Gran, but soon reverted to the former, which evolved into Esztergom by the thirteenth century. The German and Avar archaeological finds found in the area reveal that these people settled there following the period of the migrations that were caused by the fall of the Roman Empire.[citation needed]
At about 500 AD, Slavic peoples immigrated into the Pannonian Basin. In the 9th century, the territory was mostly under Frankish control, and it might have been part of Great Moravia too. In Old Slavonic language, it was called Strěgom ("guard"), as it was strategic point of control for the Danube valley.[citation needed]
The Magyars entered the Pannonian Basin in 896 AD and conquered it systematically, succeeding fully in 901.[citation needed] In 960, the ruling prince of the Hungarians, Géza, chose Esztergom as his residence. His son, Vajk, who was later called Saint Stephen of Hungary, was born in his palace built on the Roman castrum on the Várhegy (Castle Hill) around 969–975. In 973, Esztergom served as the starting point of an important historical event: during Easter of that year, Géza sent a committee to the international peace conference of Emperor Otto I in Quedlinburg. He offered peace to the Emperor and asked for missionaries.[citation needed]
The prince's residence stood on the northern side of the hill. The center of the hill was occupied by a basilica dedicated to St. Adalbert, who, according to legend, baptised St. Stephen. The Church of St. Adalbert was the seat of the archbishop of Esztergom, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Hungary. By that time, significant numbers of craftsmen and merchants had settled in the city.[citation needed]
Stephen's coronation took place in Esztergom on either Christmas Day 1000 or 1 January 1001. From the time of his rule up to the beginning of the 13th century, the only mint for the country operated here. During the same period, the castle of Esztergom ("Estergon Kalesi" in Turkish) was built. It served not only as the royal residence until the Mongol siege of Esztergom in 1241 (during the first Mongol invasion), but also as the center of the Hungarian state, religion, and Esztergom county. The archbishop of Esztergom was the leader of the ten bishoprics founded by Stephen. The archbishop was often in charge of important state functions and had the exclusive right to crown kings.[citation needed]
The settlements of royal servants, merchants and craftsmen at the foot of the Várhegy (Castle Hill) developed into the most significant town during the age of the Árpád dynasty– these being the most important area of the economic life of the country. According to the Frenchman Odo of Deuil, who visited the country in 1147, "the Danube carries the economy and treasures of several countries to Esztergom".[citation needed]
The town council was made up of the richest citizens of the town (residents of French, Spanish, Dutch, and Italian origin) who dealt with commerce.[citation needed] The coat of arms of Esztergom emerged from their seal in the 13th century. This was the town where foreign monarchs could meet Hungarian kings. For example, Emperor Conrad II met Géza II in this town (1147). Another important meeting took place when the German Emperor Frederick Barbarossa visited Béla III. The historians traveling with them all agree on the richness and significance of Esztergom. Arnold of Lübeck, the historian with Frederick Barbarossa, called Esztergom the capital of Hungarian people ("quae Ungarorum est metropolis").[citation needed]
In the beginning of the 13th century, Esztergom was the center of the country's political and economic life. This is explained by the canon of Nagyvárad, Rogerius of Apulia, who witnessed the first devastation of the country during the Tatar siege of Esztergom and wrote in his Carmen Miserabile ("Sad Song"): "since there was no other town like Esztergom in Hungary, the Tatars were considering crossing the Danube to pitch a camp there", which was exactly what happened after the Danube froze.[citation needed] The capital of the Árpád-age was destroyed in a vicious battle. Though, according to the documents that remained intact, some of the residents (those who escaped into the castle) survived and new residents settled in the area and soon started rebuilding the town, it lost its leading role. Béla IV gave the palace and castle to the archbishop, and changed his residence to Buda. Béla IV and his family, however, were buried in the Franciscan church in Esztergom which had been destroyed during the invasion and which had been rebuilt by Béla IV in 1270.[citation needed]
Following these events, the castle was built and decorated by the bishops. The center of the king's town, which was surrounded by walls, was still under royal authority. A number of different monasteries did return or settle in the religious center.[citation needed]
Meanwhile, the citizenry had been fighting to maintain and reclaim the rights of towns against the expansion of the church within the royal town. In the chaotic years after the fall of the House of Árpád, Esztergom suffered another calamity: in 1304, the forces of Wenceslaus II, the Czech king occupied and raided the castle. In the years to come, the castle was owned by several individuals: Róbert Károly and then Louis the Great patronized the town. In 1327 Kovácsi, the most influential suburb of the town, lying in the southeast, was united with Esztergom. The former suburb had three churches with mainly blacksmith, goldsmith, and coiner residents.[citation needed]
In the 14th and 15th centuries, Esztergom saw events of great importance and became one of the most influential acropolises of Hungarian culture along with Buda. Their courts, which were similar to the royal courts of Buda and Visegrád, were visited by such kings, scientists, and artists as Louis the Great, Sigismund of Luxembourg, King Matthias Corvinus, Galeotto Marzio, Regiomontanus, the famous astronomer Marcin Bylica and Georg von Peuerbach, Pier Paolo Vergerio and Antonio Bonfini, King Matthias's historian, who, in his work praises the constructive work of János Vitéz, King Matthias's educator. He had a library and an observatory built next to the cathedral. As Bonfini wrote about his masterpiece, his palace and terraced gardens: "he had a spacious room for knights built in the castle. In front of that, he built a wonderful loggia of red marble. In front of the room, he built the Chapel of Sibyls, whose walls were decorated with paintings of the sybils.[citation needed] On the walls of the knights' room, not only the likeness of all the kings could be found, but also the Scythian ancestors. He also had a double garden constructed, which was decorated with columns and a corridor above them. Between the two gardens, he built a round tower of red marble with several rooms and balconies. He had Saint Adalbert's Basilica covered with glass tiles". King Matthias's widow, Beatrix of Aragon, lived in the castle of Esztergom for ten years (1490–1500).[citation needed]
The time of the next resident, Archbishop Tamás Bakócz (d. 1521) gave the town significant monuments. In 1507 he had Italian architects build the Bakócz chapel, which is the earliest and most significant Renaissance building which has survived in Hungary. The altarpiece of the chapel was carved from white marble by Andrea Ferrucci, a sculptor from Fiesole in 1519.[citation needed]
The Ottoman conquest of Mohács in 1526 brought a decline to the previously flourishing Esztergom as well.[citation needed] In the Battle of Mohács, the archbishop of Esztergom died. In the period between 1526 and 1543, when two rival kings reigned in Hungary, Esztergom was besieged six times. At times the invading forces were of Ferdinand I or John Zápolya, at other times the Ottomans attacked. Finally, in 1530, Ferdinand I occupied the castle. He put foreign mercenaries in the castle, and sent the chapter and the bishopric to Nagyszombat and Pozsony (that is why some of the treasury, the archives and the library survived).[citation needed]
In 1543, Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent attacked the castle and captured it. The castle then remained under the Ottoman Empire.[citation needed]
Esztergom (as Estergon) became the centre of an Ottoman sanjak controlling several counties, and also a significant castle on the northwestern border of the Ottoman Empire – the main clashing point to prevent attacks on the mining towns of the highlands, Vienna and Buda. In 1594, during the unsuccessful but devastating siege, Bálint Balassa, the first Hungarian poet who gained European significance, died in action, , by the walls of the Víziváros. The most devastating siege took place in 1595 when the castle was reclaimed by the troops of Count Karl von Mansfeld and Count Mátyás Cseszneky. The price that had to be paid, however, was high. Most of the buildings in the castle and the town that had been built in the Middle Ages were destroyed during this period, and there were only uninhabitable, smothered ruins to welcome the conquerors.[citation needed]
In 1605 the Ottomans regained control of the castle as well as the whole region again, maintaining their rule until 1683.[citation needed] Though the Ottomans were mainly engaged in building and fortifying the castle, they also built significant new buildings including mosques, minarets and baths. These structures, along with the contemporary buildings, were destroyed in the siege of 1683 resulting in the re-conquest of Esztergom - though some Turkish buildings prevailed up to the beginning of the 18th century. The last time the Ottoman forces attacked Esztergom was in 1685. During the following year Buda was conquered as well. During these battles János Bottyán, captain of the cavalry, later the legendary figure of the Rákóczi war of independence disappeared. All that had been rebuilt at the end of the century was destroyed and burnt down during Ferenc Rákóczi's long lasting, but finally successful siege.[citation needed]
The destroyed territory was settled by Hungarian, Slovak and German settlers. This was when the new national landscape developed. In the area where there had previously been 65 Hungarian villages, only 22 were rebuilt. Though the reconstructed town received its free royal rights, in size and significance it was only a shadow of its former self.[citation needed]
Handcrafts gained strength and in around 1730, there were 17 independent crafts operating in Esztergom. Wine-culture was also of major significance. This was also the period when the Baroque view of the downtown area and the Víziváros (Watertown) were developed. The old town's main characteristic is the simplicity and moderateness of its citizen Baroque architecture. The most beautiful buildings can be found around the marketplace (Széchenyi square).[citation needed]
In 1761, the bishopric regained control over the castle, where they started the preliminary processes of the reconstruction of the new religious center: the middle of the Várhegy (Castle Hill), the remains of Saint Stephen and Saint Adalbert churches were carried away to provide room for the new cathedral.[citation needed]
Although the major construction work and the resettlement of the bishopric (1820) played a significant role in the town's life, the pace of Esztergom's development gradually slowed down, and work on the new Basilica came to a halt.[citation needed]
By the beginning of the 20th century, Esztergom gained significance owing to its cultural and educational institutions as well as to being an administrative capital. The town's situation turned worse after the Treaty of Trianon of 1920, after which it became a border town and lost most of its previous territory.[citation needed]
This was also the place where the poet Mihály Babits spent his summers from 1924 to his death in 1941. The poet's residence was one of the centers of the country's literary life; he had a significant effect on intellectual life in Esztergom.[citation needed]
Esztergom had one of the oldest Jewish communities in Hungary. They had a place of worship here by 1050. King Charles I (Caroberto) gifted a plot to the community for a cemetery in 1326.[citation needed]
According to the 1910 census, 5.1% of the population were Jewish, while the 1941 census found a population of 1510 Jews. The community maintained an elementary school until 1944. Jewish shops were ordered to be closed on 28 April 1944, and a short-lived ghetto was set up on 11 May. The former Jewish shops were handed over to non-Jews on 9 June. The inmates of the ghetto were sent to Komárom in early June, then deported to Auschwitz on 16 June 1944. Two forced labor units, whose members were mainly Esztergom Jews, were executed en masse near Ágfalva, on the Austrian border in January 1945.[citation needed]
Soviet troops captured the town on 26 December 1944, but were pushed back by the Germans on 6 January 1945, who were finally ousted on 21 March 1945.[citation needed]
The Mária Valéria bridge, connecting Esztergom with the city of Štúrovo in Slovakia was rebuilt in 2001 with the support of the European Union. Originally it was inaugurated in 1895, but the retreating German troops destroyed it in 1944. A new thermal and wellness spa opened in November 2005.[citation needed]
