Komárom-Esztergom county

Category: Esztergom

St Thomas Becket Chapel (Our Lady of Sorrows Chapel) - Esztergom

Category: Esztergom

Szenttamás (St Thomas) is one of the districts of Esztergom. It was an independent community prior to 1895 and took its name from Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury. A thermal bath was established by Queen Anne of Antioch at the thermal springs rising from the foot of St Thomas Hill to the north of old Esztergom. This was probably the first public bath in Hungary.A Baroque-style Calvary leads to the chapel on the top of St Thomas Hill. The six-station way’s buildings consist of coloured reliefs carved in stone and coloured wooden sculptures. The Baroque-style Calvary was built in 1781 while the Classicist Calvary chapel was built in 1823. The 41m2 chapel, which houses a relic of St Thomas, was built by János Benyovszky, titular bishop and cannon, in the honour of Our Lady of the Sorrows. The wooden-columned, rectangular chapel with triangulate vaulting has a small tower on its facade. The monumental Calvary statue group in front of it dates from 1781 and stood on Castle Hill before the basilica was built. Address: Esztergom-SzenttamáshegyKermesse (patronal festival): 15 SeptemberFurther information: Parish2500 Esztergom, Mindszenty tér 3.33/413-878vizivaros@egomnet.hu

Category: Esztergom

Víziváros St Ignatius of Loyola Parish Church - Esztergom

Category: Esztergom

The Víziváros parish church is located on Mindszenty tér, the main square of Víziváros (Watertown), next to the Primate’s Palace. Built in the first half of the 18th century by the Jesuits in the honour of St Ignatius of Loyola, the Baroque church served temporarily as a cathedral between 1820 and 1856.The listed church is a significant memorial to Hungarian Baroque architecture originating from Italy. The forward-curved facade is straddled by two towers and there is a statue of St Ignatius of Loyola at the top of the arched gable. The church has a single nave and a floor area of 399 m²; the nave and sanctuary have surbased spherical vaulting. The main altarpiece dates from 1737 and is the work of Martino Altomonte; it depicts the glorification and miracles of St Ignatius. There is a listed statue of Mary opposite the church’s entrance, which was created in 1740 to commemorate the previous year’s plague.

Category: Esztergom

Our Blessed Lady and St Adalbert Cathedral (Basilica)

Category: Esztergom

The Esztergom Basilica is the largest church in Hungary. The emblematic building on Castle Hill in Esztergom, the great cathedral known informally as the Esztergom Basilica, is Hungary’s highest ranking church. The inscription on the main facade, CAPUT, MATER ET MAGISTRA ECCLESIARUM HUNGARIAE, also refers to this: Head, Mother and Teacher of the Hungarian Churches. The 100-metre-high basilica was built between 1822 and 1869 and its consecration took place in 1856. It also houses the world’s largest altarpiece painted on canvas. The cathedral’s crypt is the eternal burial site of the Archbishops of Esztergom. Sándor Rudnay, who began construction of the ecclesiastical church complex rests here, but there are also medieval and early-modern tombs belonging to the former cathedral. János Vitéz (John Vitéz de Zredna), King Matthias’s educator and chancellor, was also returned here as well as the tomb of Cardinal Archbishop Dénes Széchy, who crowned three kings.The collection of liturgical gold and textile objects on the first floor of the basilica represents outstanding artistic and cultural history and is considered something special in Europe. The coronation oath cross has been preserved here for centuries and was used to swear in the kings of Hungary during their coronation ceremonies.The basilica’s left chapel is the 16th-century Bakócz Chapel, the pearl of Renaissance architecture in Hungary and the pilgrimage site of the Castle Madonna.