Esztergom

Esztergom (Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈɛstɛrɡom]  listen , also known by alternative names), is a city in northern Hungary, 46 kilometres (29 miles) northwest of the capital Budapest. It lies in Komárom-Esztergom county, on the right bank of the river Danube, which forms the border with Slovakia there.

Esztergom was the capital of Hungary from the 10th till the mid-13th century when King Béla IV of Hungary moved the royal seat to Buda.

Esztergom is the seat of the prímás (see Primate) of the Roman Catholic Church in Hungary, and the former seat of the Constitutional Court of Hungary. The city has the Keresztény Múzeum, the largest ecclesiastical collection in Hungary. Its cathedral, Esztergom Basilica is the largest church in Hungary.

The site would host the upcoming 52nd International Eucharistic Congress in 2020.

Names

The Roman town was called Solva. The Old Slavonic name, Strěgom, is explained meaning guarding or guard post (rel. Czech střeh – watching position, Slovak striehnuť, old Slovak striegnuť - to watch, to guard, similar to for example Strážov near Žilina - village of guards). This name was taken over by medieval Latin as Strigonium. The Hungarians added a vowel in front of the initial group of consonants, similar to the Hungarian adaption of 'Stephan' as 'Istvan'. The name Esztergom was first mentioned in documents in 1079. Nevertheless, some people believe the name 'Esztergom' is a combination of 'Ister' (a Latin name of Danube) and 'Gam' referring to the nearby river Garam). The Turkish and modern Slavic names are derived from the Hungarian one: Serbian Ostrogon and Estergon, Croatian Ostrogon, Turkish Estergon, Polish Ostrzyhom, Slovak Ostrihom and Czech Ostřihom (o is a familiar prefix in Slavic languages, and all-Slavic g is Czech and Slovak h). The German name is Gran (German:  Gran ), like the German name of river Garam.

Esztergom County

Esztergom County (Latin: comitatus Stringoniensis, Hungarian: Esztergom (vár)megye, Slovak: Ostrihomský komitát / Ostrihomská stolica / Ostrihomská župa, German: Graner Gespanschaft / Komitat Gran) was an administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary in present-day southern Slovakia and northern Hungary on both sides of the Danube river.

Geography

Esztergom County shared borders with the counties Bars (Slovak: Tekov), Hont, Pest-Pilis-Solt-Kiskun and Komárom (Komárno). Its territory comprised a 15 km strip to the west of the lower part of the Hron river and continued some 10 km south of the Danube river. Its area was 1077 km² around 1910.

Capitals

The capital of the county was the Esztergom Castle and the town of Esztergom, then from 1543 onwards – when the territory became part of the Ottoman Empire – the capital was outside the county (e. g. 1605–1663 in Érsekújvár), and finally from 1714 onwards the capital was the town of Esztergom.

History

A predecessor of the county existed as early as in the 9th century, when Esztergom (called Ostrihom at that time) was one of the most important castles of Great Moravia. The Esztergom county as a comitatus arose at the end of the 10th century as one of the first comitatus of the Kingdom of Hungary. The county had a special status in that since 1270 its heads were at the same time the archbishops of Esztergom.