From the top, left to right: Hungarian Royal Hotel, Cathedral of Székesfehérvár, Aunt Kati statue, Árpád Spa, Episcopal Palace, and Csók István Gallery and Vörösmarty Mihály Library
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Nicknames:
Fehérvár Hungarian Crowning City City of Kings City of Churches
Székesfehérvár, a royal residence (székhely),[3] as capital of theKingdom of Hungary, held a central role in the Middle Ages. As required by theDoctrine of the Holy Crown, the first kings of Hungary were crowned and buried here.[4] Significant trade routes led to theBalkans andItaly, and toBuda andVienna. Historically the city has come underOttoman andHabsburg control, and was known in many languages by translations of "white castle" –Croatian:Biograd,Slovak:Belehrad, etc.
The place has been inhabited since the 5th century BCE. InRoman times, the settlements were calledGorsium andHerculia. After the Migration PeriodFejér County was the part of theAvar Khaganate,[6] while the Slavic andGreat Moravian presence is disputed. (There is no source for the name of the place before the late 10th century.) In theMiddle Ages its Latin name wasAlba Regalis/Alba Regia. The town was an important traffic junction betweenLake Balaton andLake Velence, several trade routes led from here to theBalkans andItaly, and toBuda andVienna. Today, the town is a junction of seven railroad lines.[7]
Grand Prince Géza of theÁrpád dynasty was the nominal overlord of all sevenMagyar tribes but in reality ruled only part of the united territory. He aimed to integrate Hungary intoChristian Western Europe by rebuilding the state according to the Western political and social models. Géza founded the Hungarian town in 972 on fourmoorland islands between the Gaja stream and its tributary, theSárvíz, one of the most important Hungarian tributaries of the Danube. He also had a small stone castle built. Székesfehérvár was first mentioned in a document by theBishopric of Veszprém, 1009, asAlba Civitas.
István I,Grand Prince of the Hungarians, grantedtown rights to the settlement, surrounded the town with a plank wall, and founded a school and a monastery.[8] Under his rule the construction of theRomanesqueSzékesfehérvár Basilica began (it was built between 1003 and 1038). The settlement had about 3,500 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), including King St. Stephen I, Hungary's first monarch.[9] In the past few decades, archaeologists have excavatedmedieval ruins, including those of the Romanesque basilica and the mausoleum of King István I; they can now be visited.
In the 12th century, the town prospered; churches, monasteries, and houses were built. It was an important station on the pilgrim route to the Holy Land.András II issued theGolden Bull here in 1222. The Bull included the rights ofnobles and the duties of the king, and theConstitution of Hungary was based on it until 1848. It is often compared to England'sMagna Carta.
During theMongol invasion of Hungary (1241–1242), the invaders could not get close to the castle:Kadan ruled[clarification needed] Mongol warriors could not get through the surroundingmarshes because of flooding caused by melting snow. In the 13th–15th centuries, the town prospered, and several palaces were built. In the 14th century, Székesfehérvár was surrounded by city walls.
After the death ofKing Mátyás (1490), the German army of 20,000 men led by theHoly Roman EmperorMaximilian I invaded Hungary. They advanced into the heart of Hungary and captured the city of Székesfehérvár, which they sacked, as well as the tomb of King Mátyás, which was kept there. HisLandsknechts were still unsatisfied with the plunder and refused to go for taking[clarification needed] Buda. He returned to the Empire in late December and the Hungarian troops liberated Székesfehérvár in the next year.[10]
TheOttoman Turks invaded the city after a longsiege in 1543 and only after asally ended in most of the defenders including the commander,György Varkoch, being locked out by wealthy citizens fearing they might incur the wrath of the Ottomans by a lengthy siege. The Ottoman Empire continued to stretch northwards, taking parts of theKingdom of Hungary in the 16th century, and reaching as far north as thePodolia in the mid-17th century; by the signing of thePeace of Buczacz with thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1672, most of the Balkans was under Ottoman control.
Except for a short period in 1601, when Székesfehérvár was reconquered by an army led byLawrence of Brindisi, the city remained underOttoman administration for 145 years, until 1688,[11] with the Ottomans being preoccupied with theMorean War. They renamed the cityBeograd ("White city", from SerbianBeograd) and builtmosques. In the 16th–17th centuries, it looked like aMuslim city. As a result, most of the original Hungarian population fled. It became asanjak centre in theBudin Province, known asİstolni Beograd during Ottoman rule.
By 1702, theCathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary was blown up,[13] thus destroying the largest cathedral in Hungary at that time, and the coronation temple. By theDoctrine of the Holy Crown, all kings of Hungary were obliged to be crowned in this cathedral, and to take part in coronation ceremony in the surroundings of the cathedral. The coronations after that time were held in Pozsony (nowBratislava).
In 1703, Székesfehérvár regained the status of afree royal town. 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, theGerman population wasassimilated. On 15 March 1848, the citizens joined therevolution. After the revolution and war for independence, Székesfehérvár lost its importance and became a mainly agricultural city. In 1909The Times Engineering Contract List noted a bridge construction contract valued at £12,000 to be overseen by theChief Magistrate.[14]
New prosperity arrived between the two world wars, when several new factories were opened. In 1922 a radio station was established. It used two masts insulated[clarification needed] against ground, each with a height of 152 metres. The last mast of the station was demolished in 2009.
In December 1944, Fehérvár came under Russian artillery fire, and stiff fighting broke out as theRed Army advanced on the city.[17] The Germans had chosen to concentrate their forces to protect the 15-mile gap between Fehérvár andLake Balaton. Whereas most of the gap consisted of marsh and difficult ground, Fehérvár was the node for eight highways and six railways.[18] Despite the heavy German defences, a Soviet flying column broke through and occupied the city on 23 December;[19] the Germans were able to push them out on 22 January 1945.[20] In March 1945, the area was the battleground for thelast major German offensive of World War II; but following its failureMarshal Tolbukhin broke through the German lines once more and recaptured the city on 22 March.[21] A Sovietairfield was established at nearbySzabadbattyán.[22]
In August 1951, over 150 people were killed when two trains collided in Fehérvár.[23]
In theaftermath of World War II, the city was subject toindustrialization, like many other cities and towns in the country. The most important factories were theIkarus Bus factory, theVideoton radio and TV factory, and the Könnyűfémmű (colloquially Köfém)aluminium processing plant, since acquired byAlcoa. By the 1970s, Székesfehérvár had swelled to more than 100,000 inhabitants (in 1945 it had only about 35,000). Several housing estates were built, but the city centre preserved its Baroque atmosphere. The most important Baroque buildings are the cathedral, the episcopal palace and the city hall.
After theend of theCommunist regime in Hungary (1989), theplanned economy was abandoned in favor of the implementation of afree market system; all the important factories were on the verge of collapse (some eventually folded) and thousands of people lost their jobs. However, the city profited from losing the old and inefficient companies, as an abundance of skilled labour coupled with excellent traffic connections, and existing infrastructure attracted numerous foreign firms seeking to invest in Hungary. Székesfehérvár became one of the prime destinations formultinational companies setting up shop in Hungary (Ford andIBM are some of them), turning the city into a success story of Hungary's transition to a market economy. A few years laterDenso,Alcoa,Philips, andSanmina-SCI Corporation also settled in the city.
The local Municipal Assembly, elected at the2019 local government elections, is made up of 21 members (1 Mayor, 14 Individual constituencies MEPs and 6 Compensation List MEPs) divided into this political parties and alliances:[24]
Székesfehérvár is an important hub for theHungarian railway system (MÁV). Trains depart to the northern and southern coasts of Lake Balaton and towards the capital. The city is also reachable by regional buses from other major national destinations. There are numerous local buslines operating 7 days a week, operated by the company that also operates the regional buses in the region, KNYKK Zrt. (Közép-Nyugat Magyarországi Közlekedési Központ).
Alba Regia Sportcsarnok is an indoor stadium in the city. It hosts a number of sport clubs from amateur to professional level, with 2017 Hungarian basketball championship winnerAlba Fehérvár being its most notable tenant.
^József Bánlaky (1929). "Ulászló küzdelmei János Albert lengyel herceggel és Miksa római királlyal. Az 1492. évi budai országgyűlés főbb határozatai." [Struggle of Vladislas against prince John Albert and Holy Roman Emperor Maxinmilan. The assembly of Buda in 1492 and its sanctions.].A magyar nemzet hadtörténelme [Military history of the Hungarian nation] (in Hungarian).Budapest, Hungary: Grill Károly Könyvkiadó vállalata.ISBN963-86118-7-1. Retrieved16 June 2011.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
^Alban Butler, Paul Burns (2000).Butler's Lives of the Saints. A&C Black. p. 159.ISBN0-86012-256-5.
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