| Page Views: 710 Last Visit to Szekesfehervar: July, 2002 | Szekesfehervar by budapest8 - last update: May 4, 2006 |
The city of the kings
The city of the kings ',
was the first capital of Hungary. Its name is Alba Regia in Latin.
Now it is the seat of FejÈr county, its population is 130,000 and
it is a road and railway junction. The downtown is rich in historical
monuments and museums.
Dov Gutterman, 2 August 1999
SzÈkesfehÈrvÀr is a city in FejÈr County in Hungary near to the
Lake of Velence (10 km West). The city has got 107.073 inhabitants
(1990 census), nearly all of them are Hungarians.
Five of the Official Ethnic Minorities of Hungary has got ethnic council in the
city. Gipsy, Polish, German, Armenian and Serb. Neighbouring settlements
are: ZÀmoly, SÀrkeresztes, Moha, IszkaszentgyÆrgy, CsÑr, SÀrszentmihÀly,
SzabadbattyÀn, TÀc, Aba, SeregÈlyes, PÀkozd and PÀtka villages.
The name of the city: SzÈkes means Royal and FehÈrvÀr means White
Castle. The German name is a wrong translation: Stuhlweissenburg.
Stuhl in Hungarian SzÈk (means chair) The Latin name of the city in the
Middle Ages was Alba Regalis (means Royal White Castle).
From http://www.szekesfehervar.hu/drszfveng/history.htm/:
"SzÈkesfehÈrvÀr, named Alba Regia in the middle ages, is one of our most
ancientcities. The significant events of our history happened here through the
centuries. This was the place where our kings were crowned and buried.
The king's throne and the symbols of the royal power were kept here (...)
GÈza the great emperor established SzÈkesfehÈrvÀr as a emperor abode
during his principality (972 - 997) on the hills surrounded by swamps.
He built an abode surrounded by ditches and a mound. It was a
Byzantine-style quatrefoil church, one of the first Hungarian stone built
churches, which later served as his resting-place. The ground plan of the
church is marked by the different coloured paving stones on the square in
front of the cathedral. The name Alba Civitas first appeared in the bishopric
diploma of VeszprÈm in 1009. Under King Saint Stephen's rule (1001 -1038)
it was a populous and extended settlement, which was surrounded
by palings and walls built of soil. King Stephen's basilica was one of the
monumental buildings of its time in Europe; it was quite a technical miracle.
The basilica was the most significant place of the mediaeval Hungarian State throughout five centuries. There, in the cathedral stood the throne,
was kept the crown, the symbols of the royal power, the country's treasury,
and archives. It was the scene of forty-six diets (...) the royal coronations and
funerals were still held in Alba Regia even after the àrpÀd dynasty had
died out (1301). The Turks occupied the strategically important city in 1543
and kept it under their rule for 145 years. During the days of Turkish rule the
pompous buildings of Istolni BelgrÀd - Turkish name of Alba Regia -
were rebuilt into dzsÀmis, and mosques, and the graves of the royal basilica
were completely despoiled. (...) The rule of the Turkish crescent ceased in
1688. At the same time when renovating and rebuilding works were still in
process the city had to carry on a fight against the Austrians to get back our
privileges and rights. The imperial commissioner wielded the actual power
over SzÈkesfehÈrvÀr until 1703 when the city gained back its past rank:
it was a free royal city again."
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In 1910 SzÈkesfehÈrvÀr was a city in the Kingdom of Hungary.
Number of its inhabitants in 1910: 36.625; 35.354 (96,5%) Hungarian, 539
(1,5%) Croatian, 538 (1,5%) German and 194 (0,5%) other by mother tongue,
29.407 (80,3%) Roman Catholic, 3.121 (8,5%) Calvinist, 3.024 (8,3%) Jew,
660 (1,8%) Lutheran and 413 (1,1%) other by religion.
07.08.1919-07.10.1919 the city was under Rumanian occupation. /Source:
From http://www.szekesfehervar.hu/drszfveng/history.htm/
"Because of its strategic location SzÈkesfehÈrvÀr was one of the Hungarian
cities that suffered the most during the World War II. One third of its buildings
became uninhabitable and 8-10 thousand of its inhabitants was killed or
reported missing."
On 19.03.1944 German troops occupied the city. 22.12.1944-22.01.1945
under Soviet rule. 22.01.1945-23.03.1945 under German rule.
There were the two last great counter offensives of the German Army in the
WWII. Between 1950-1989 SzÈkesfehÈrvÀr was only a town.
From 1989 city (with county rank) again.
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SzÈkesfehÈrvÀr's names:
Stuhlweissenburg in German
StolicnÙ Belehrad in Slovakian
Stolni Biograd in Croatian
Alba Regala in Rumanian
Stoni Beograd in Serbian |
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 Comments for budapest8 about Szekesfehervar | | | | |
chiara76 Thu Apr 13, 2006 14:48 UTC
I have had a penpal who used to live in that town. At the moment she moved to America. It seems it is interesting town in your country. |
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