Székesfehérvár

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Székesfehérvár map

phone district code:

population:

101600 person

area:

17089 km²

Székesfehérvár(in Latin: Alba Regia; in colloquial speech Fehérvár) is a city in central Hungary, located around 65 km southwest of Budapest. It is inhabited by 106,346 people (2001), with 138,995 in the direct vicinity, and is the centre of Fejér county and the regional centre of Central Transdanubia.  In the Middle Ages the city was a royal residence and the most important city of Hungary. 37 kings and 39 queen consorts were crowned, 15 rulers have been buried here, the diets were held and the crown jewels were kept here.

Etymology of the name

The city's name means "white castle with the chair/seat", and its translation to other related languages (German Stuhlweißenburg, Croatian Stolni Biograd, Turkish Istolni Belgrád) means "white castle of/with the chair/table".

The word szék meaning seat is related to its important role in the first centuries of Hungary: székhely means a (royal) residence. The first kings of Hungary were crowned and buried here, so Székesfehérvár was a capital city of the country. The other capital was Esztergom.

History

The place was inhabited since the 5th century BCE. In the Roman times the settlements were called Gorsium and Herculia. In the Middle Ages its Latin name was Alba Regalis/Alba Regia. The twon was an important traffic junction between Lake Balaton and Lake Velence, several trade routes led from here to the Balkans and Italy.

The Hungarian town was founded in 972 by High Prince Géza on four islands in the moors of the streams Gaja and Sárvíz. He also had a small stone castle built. Székesfehérvár was first mentioned in a document by the Bishopric of Veszprém, 1009, as Alba Civitas.

Contrary to popular belief, Géza's son St. Stephen was not crowned here, because the basilica has been finished only in 1039, one year after his death. Stephen granted town rights to the settlement, surrounded the town with a plank wall, had a provostery and a school built and under his rule the construction of the basilica began (it was built between 1003 and 1038). The settlement had about 3500 inhabitants at this time and was the royal seat for hundreds of years. 43 kings were crowned in Székesfehérvár (the last one in 1526) and 15 kings were buried here (the last one in 1540).

In the 12th century the town prospered, churches, monasteries and houses were built. It was an important station on the pilgrim road to the Holy Land. Andrew II issued the Golden Bull here in 1222. The Bull included the rights of nobles and the duties of the king, and the Constitution of Hungary was based on it utnil 1848.

During the Mongol Invasion of Hungary (1241–1242) the invaders couldn't get close to the castle, they couldn't get through the surrounding marshes because of the melting of the snow. In the 13th–15th centuries the town prospered, several palaces were built. In the 14th century Székesfehérvár was surrounded by city walls.

The Ottomans occupied the city after a long siege in 1543. The city was under Ottoman ocupation for 145 years, until 1688, except for a short period in 1601 when it was re-occupied. The Ottomans destroyed most of the city, they demolished the cathedral and the royal palace, and they pillaged the graves of kings in the cathedral. They named the city Belgrad ("white castle") and built mosques. In the 16th–17th centuries it looked like a Muslim city. Most of the original population fled.

The city began to prosper again only in the 18th century. It had a mixed population, Hungarians, Serbs, Germans and Moravians. In 1703 Székesfehérvár became a free royal town again, but it didn' become capital again, for the country was now ruled by the Habsburgs whose royal seat was Vienna, while the juridical meetings  were held in Pozsony (Pressburg / Bratislava.) In the middle of the century several new buildings were erected (Franciscan church and monastery, Jesuit churches, public buildings, Baroque palaces). Maria Theresa made the city an episcopal seat in 1777.

By the early 19th century the German population was assimilated. On March 15, 1848 the citizens joined the revolution. After the revolution and war for independence Székesfehérvár lost its importance and became a mainly agricultural city. New prosperity arrived between the two world wars, when several new factories were opened.

After World War II the city was subject to the industrialization like many other cities and towns in the country. The most important factories were the Ikarus bus factory and the Videoton radio and TV factory. By the 1970s Székesfehérvár had more than 100,000 inhabitants (in 1945 it had only about 35,000.) Several housing estates were built, but the downtown could preserve its Baroque atmosphere. The most important Baroque buildings are the cathedral, the episcopal palace and the city hall.

In the past few decades archaeologists excavated mediaeval ruins (that of the Romanesque basilica and the mausoleum of St. Stephen) that can be visited now.

Tourist sights

Downtown with historical (Baroque, Classical) buildings
St. Stephen Cathedral (burial place of several mediaeval kings incl. St. Stephen and Béla III)
St. Anna Chapel (Gothic, built around 1470)
Ruins of mediaeval church founded by St. Stephen
Episcopal Palace (Zopf style)
City Hall
Zichy Palace (Zopf style manorhouse, 1781)
King Stephen Museum
Doll Museum
Apothecary Museum
City Museum
City Gallery
Csitáry source (mineral water source)
Serbian skanzen (12 thatched peasant houses and a Byzantian-style church, won the Europa Nostra award in 1990)
Golden Bull memorial (the Golden Bull was an important charta by King Andrew II, it was released here; the memorial is from 1972.)
Bory manor (20th century)