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Székesfehérvár
—  City  —
Székesfehérvár montage
From the left: Saint Stephen's Cathedral, Castle Kégl in Csalapuszta, Theatre Vörösmarty, Episcopal Palace, Ottokár Prohászka Church, Bory Castle, Sóstói Stadion
Székesfehérvár COA
Coat of arms
Nickname(s): Szfvár, Fehérvár, The Hungarian Crowning City
HU county Fejer
Location of Fejér County in Hungary



Székesfehérvár is located in Hungary
Red pog
Székesfehérvár
Location of Székesfehérvár in Hungary



Székesfehérvár is located in Fejér County
Red pog
Székesfehérvár
Location of Székesfehérvár in Fejér County
Coordinates: 47°11′20″N 18°24′50″E / 47.18877, 18.41384
Country Flag of Hungary Hungary
County Fejér
Area
 • Total 170.89 km2 (65.98 sq mi)
Population (2011)
 • Total 100,570decrease
 • Rank 9th
 • Density 593.74/km2 (1,537.8/sq mi)
 • Demonym székesfehérvári, fehérvári
Population by ethnicity
 • Hungarians 95.7%
 • Gypsies 0.5%
 • Germans 0.8%
 • Slovaks 0.04%
 • Others 2.96%
Population by Religion
 • Roman Catholics 53.8%
 • Atheists 19.7%
 • Calvinists 12.1%
 • Lutherans 1.9%
 • Greek Catholics 0.5%
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 • Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code 8000
Area code(s) 22
Website szekesfehervar.hu

Székesfehérvár (Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈseːkɛʃfɛˈheːrvaːr]  (Speaker Icon listen), German: Stuhlweißenburg, Slovak: Stoličný Belehrad) is a city in central Hungary and is the 9th largest in the country. Located around 65 km (40 mi) southwest of Budapest. It is inhabited by 101,973 people (2010), with 136,995 in the Székesfehérvár Subregion. The city is the centre of Fejér County and the regional centre of Central Transdanubia. In the Middle Ages the city was a royal residence and was one of the most important cities of Hungary. In the Székesfehérvár Basilica, 37 kings and 39 queens consort were crowned, 15 rulers have been buried here, the diets were held and the crown jewels were kept here.

Names[]

The name Székesfehérvár means "seat of the white castle" or "white castle with the seat" and the city is known by translations of this in other languages (Latin: Alba Regia, German: Stuhlweißenburg, Slovak: Stoličný Belehrad, Serbian: Столни Београд, Stolni Beograd, Croatian: Stolni Biograd, Slovene: Stolni Belograd, Czech: Stoličný Bělehrad, Polish: Białogród Stołeczny or Białogród Królewski, Turkish: İstolni Belgrad). In Hungarian, the city is known colloquially as Fehérvár.

The word szék (meaning "seat" as "throne") is related to its important role in the 1st centuries of the Kingdom of Hungary: székhely means a (royal) residence, center. In accordance of the obligation from the Doctrine of the Holy Crown, the first kings of Hungary were crowned and buried here.

History[]

Pre-Hungarian[]

The place has been inhabited since the 5th century BC. In Roman times the settlements were called Gorsium and Herculia. In about the 5th century AD, Slavic tribes began moving into the region and this place was called Belehrad or Belegrad, being a center during the Great Moravian period. In the Middle Ages its Latin name was Alba Regalis/Alba Regia. The town was an important traffic junction between Lake Balaton and Lake Velencei, several trade routes led from here to the Balkans and Italy, and to Buda and Vienna. (Today, the town is a junction of seven railroad lines.)

Early Hungarian[]

Szfvar St Ann

St. Anna Chapel

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.

St. Stephen granted town rights to the settlement, surrounded the town with a plank wall, had a provosty and a school built and under his rule the construction of the Székesfehérvár 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 until 1848. It is often compared to England's Magna Charta.

During the Mongol Invasion of Hungary (1241–1242) the invaders could not get close to the castle: Kadan ruled Mongol warriors could not get through the surrounding marshes because of flooding caused by melting snow. In the 13th–15th centuries the town prospered, several palaces were built. In the 14th century Székesfehérvár was surrounded by city walls.

Ottoman period[]

Rác utca, Székesfehérvár 02

A 19th century Serbian quarter preserved in the middle of Székesfehérvár

The Ottomans occupied the city after a long siege in 1543 and only after a sally 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. They discovered after surrendering, however, that the Ottomans were not without a sense for chivalry and those responsible for shutting the defenders out were put to death.

The city remained under Ottoman occupation for 145 years, until 1688, except for a short period in 1601 when it was re-occupied by an army led by Lawrence of Brindisi.[1] 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 Belgrade ("white city", from Serbian Beograd) and built mosques. In the 16th–17th centuries it looked like a Muslim city. Most of the original population fled. It was a sanjak centre in Budin Province as "İstolni Belgrad" during Ottoman rule.

Habsburg Empire[]

The city began to prosper again only in the 18th century. It had a mixed population, Hungarians, Serbs, Germans and Moravians.

In 1702, the cathedral of Nagyboldogasszony was blown up,[2] therefore destroying the largest cathedral in Hungary at that time, and the coronation temple. According to the Doctrine of the Holy Crown, all kings of Hungary are obliged to be crowned in this cathedral, and to take part in coronation ceremony on the surroundings of the cathedral. The coronations after this time were done in Pozsony/Bratislava.

In 1703 Székesfehérvár regained the status of a free 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 the German population was assimilated. On 15 March 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 WWII[]

Szekesfehervarcivertanlegi2

St. Stephan Chatedral

King Matthias Memorial, Székesfehérvár

Matthias Corvinus Memorial

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, the Videoton radio and TV factory and the Könnyűfémmű (colloquially Köfém) aluminium processing plant, since acquired by Alcoa. 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 was able to 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 medieval ruins (that of the Romanesque basilica and the mausoleum of St. Stephen of Hungary) that can be visited now.

At the end of the Socialist regime, all important factories were on the verge of collapsing (some eventually folded) and thousands of people lost their jobs. However, the city profited from losing the old and inefficient companies as abundance of skilled labour coupled with excellent traffic connections and existing infrastructure attracted numerous foreign firms seeking to invest in Hungary and Székesfehérvár became one of the prime destinations for multinational companies setting up shop in Hungary (Ford and IBM are some of them), turning the city into a success story of Hungary's transition into a market economy. A few years later Denso, Alcoa, Philips, and Sanmina-SCI Corporation also settled down in the city.

Main sights[]

Bory var

Bory Castle

  • Historical centre (Baroque, Classical) buildings
  • St. Stephen Cathedral (burial place of several medieval kings incl. St. Stephen and Béla III)
  • St. Anna Chapel (Gothic, built around 1470)
  • "Ruin Garden": Ruins of medieval church founded by St. Stephen
  • Episcopal Palace (Zopf style)
  • City Hall
  • Zichy Palace (Zopf style manor house, 1781)
  • King Stephen Museum
  • Doll Museum
  • Museum of Fekete Sas Pharmacy
  • City Museum
  • City Gallery
  • Csitáry source (mineral water source)
  • Serbian skanzen (12 thatched peasant houses and a Byzantine-style church, won a 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 Castle (20th century; a fantastic castle-like structure built by the sculptor Jenő Bory and his wife with their own hands)
  • Globus crucifer (a stone image of the royal symbol of power of the same name)
  • Statue of György Varkoch at the supposed site of his death at the gates (see above)
  • Vörösmarty Theater, the oldest theater of the country
  • Flower clock

Population[]

Historical population
Year Pop. ±%
1870 23,279
1880 26,559 +14.1%
1890 28,539 +7.5%
1900 33,196 +16.3%
1910 37,710 +13.6%
1920 40,352 +7.0%
1930 41,890 +3.8%
1941 49,103 +17.2%
1945 35,000 −28.7%
1949 42,260 +20.7%
1960 56,978 +34.8%
1970 79,064 +38.8%
1980 103,571 +31.0%
1990 108,958 +5.2%
2001 106,869 −1.9%
2011 100,570 −5.9%

Ethnic groups (2001 census):

Religions (2001 census):

  • Roman Catholic - 53.8%
  • Calvinist - 12.1%
  • Lutheran - 1.9%
  • Greek Catholic - 0.5%
  • Other (Christian) - 1%
  • Other (non-Christian) - 0.2%
  • Atheists - 19.7%
  • No answer, unknown - 10.7%
MAV Stadler

MÁV Stadler Flirt in Székesfehérvár Railway Station

Famous people[]

Born in Székesfehérvár[]

  • Béla Balogh, film director
  • Jenő Bory, sculptor, architect
  • Nándor Fa, who sailed around the Earth in a small boat
  • George Fisher, settler, a leader of the Texas Revolution
  • Ignác Goldziher, orientalist
  • Katarina Ivanović, early 19th century Serbian Biedermeier painter
  • Péter Kuczka writer
  • Kornél Lánczos physicist
  • Viktor Orbán Prime Minister of Hungary in 1998—2002 and 2010-
  • Katalin Bogyay journalist, diplomat
  • Lajos Terkán astronomer
  • Miklós Ybl architect
  • George Lang restaurateur
  • Dávid Disztl Professional Football player

Fictional[]

  • Albert Horn, character in Louis Malle's film Lacombe, Lucien.

Gallery[]

International relations[]

Twin towns - Sister cities[]

Székesfehérvár is twinned with:<[3]

See also[]

References[]

Notes
  1. ^ Alban Butler, Paul Burns (2000). Butler's Lives of the Saints. p. 159. ISBN 0-86012-256-5. 
  2. ^ Ferenc Glatz: Magyar történeti kronológia
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Bozsoki, Agnes. "Partnervárosok Névsora Partner és Testvérvárosok Névsora [Partner and Twin Cities List]" (in Hungarian). City of Székesfehérvár. Archived from the original on 2012-12-08. http://web.archive.org/web/20121208035612/http://onkormanyzat.szekesfehervar.hu/index.php?pg=page_49881. Retrieved 2013-08-05. 
  4. ^ "Székesfehérvár twin cities" (in Hungarian). Székesfehérvár.hu. http://onkormanyzat.szekesfehervar.hu/index.php?pg=page_49881. Retrieved 18 July 2011. 
  5. ^ "Upcoming Birmingham Sister City Visitors" (pdf). http://www.informationbirmingham.com/pdf/economic/10visitupdates.pdf. Retrieved 18 July 2011. 
  6. ^ "Birmingham USA - Sister Cities". birminghamsistercities.com. April 23, 1982. http://www.birminghamsistercities.com/. Retrieved 2012-07-14. 
  7. ^ "Partner (Twin) towns of Bratislava". Bratislava-City.sk. Archived from the original on 2013-07-28. http://web.archive.org/web/20130728183628/http://www.bratislava-city.sk/bratislava-twin-towns. Retrieved 2013-08-05. 
  8. ^ "Miasta Partnerskie Opola" (in Polish). Urzad Miasta Opola. http://www.opole.pl/miasta_partnerskie_opola. Retrieved 2013-08-01. 

External links[]

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Coordinates: 47°11′44″N 18°24′32″E / 47.19556, 18.40889

This page uses content from the English language Wikipedia. The original content was at Székesfehérvár. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with this Familypedia wiki, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons License.
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