City of Esztergom

ESZTERGOM The first among Hungarian cities

A city whose history is full of many exciting things to discover.

According to archaeological finds, the Esztergom area has been inhabited since prehistoric times. Celts, Romans, and Avars chose the Castle Hill and its surroundings as their residence.

According to the little legend of Saint Stephen, his son Vajk was born here, who was baptized here and named Stephen, and was then crowned the ruler of the new kingdom here, thus establishing the national center. The city was built on the site of the Esztergom Cathedral.

In the church organization established by István, the Esztergom diocese stood out from the others. From the beginning, it was endowed with the rank of archbishop, and the coronation of the Hungarian kings became the privilege of the archbishop.

Over time, the settlement was settled by wealthy foreign settlers, who were mainly engaged in long-distance trade. His 12th-century seals gave rise to our coat of arms, which is still in use today.

During the reign of III. Bela, French artists and masons arrived at the royal court, whose chapel can still be visited today.
Following the Tatar invasion, the royal court finally abandoned Esztergom. IV. In 1256, he left the castle to the nobles, and in the following centuries, the nobles of each era continued to build and expand the castle.
King Matthias' tutor, János Vitéz, created a magnificent Renaissance court, with a huge library, an astronomical observatory, and artists and scientists from Italy. A reminder of the era is the Renaissance-style funeral chapel of Tamás Bakócz, which can still be visited today.

The castle fell to the Turks in 1543 and became the iconic end of the Ottoman Empire. Architectural monuments from the time of the conquest, such as mosques, palaces, and bastions, testify to the architecture of the era.

The development of the city only picked up again after the conquest of the Turks, from 1820 onwards, thanks to the efforts of the architects Sándor Rudnay. With the relocation of the Primate's Correspondence and the Cathedral Treasury to the city of Esztergom, with the commencement of the construction of the Basilica and the Church of St. Anne.

The country's third public museum, the Christian Museum, opened its doors in 1875 thanks to the generosity of Archbishop János Simor.

The first After the World War II, the county seat lost most of its appeal, and the archdiocese lost most of its influence.
After that, Esztergom redefined itself as a spa town based on the beach spa opened in 1912. The world-famous photograph, André Kertész's photograph "Swimming Under Water" in 1917.
Between the two wars, Mihály Babits's villa in the foothills of the mountains welcomed countless writers, painters, painters, and artists, drawing them into the cultural life of Esztergom. The agreement can still be read today on the autograph wall of the building that serves as a museum.

The settlement became one of the focal points of the 1938 St. Stephen's Day commemoration, which brought national attention to the newly excavated and opened to the public Árpád-era palace.

During World War II, the The city suffered severe damage. The blown-up Danube Bridge stood in ruins for decades. In 1973, Esztergom celebrated the thousandth anniversary of its founding with a series of grand events.

Over the decades, Esztergom developed into a serious school town, and after the change of regime, it became an automotive industrial hub. The Suzuki factory that settled here and its delivery routes became a major transportation hub. By 2001, the Mária Valéria Bridge could be rebuilt, thus re-establishing pedestrian access between the two twin cities on the Danube.