Ságvári Ágnes (szerk.): Budapest. The History of a Capital (Budapest, 1975)
The Medieval Sister Cities
limits of the Roman fortress. The erection of the monasteries and the expansion of the town was already connected with the German legally established municipality. The third early centre of settlements arose around the ferry landing-place on the right bank of the Danube near the Margaret Bridge of today, at the thermal springs south of Óbuda. Twelfth-century sources mention a township called Gézavására, presumably founded by Géza I (1074-1077) on this spot. This domain formed part of Buda, and later—after the establishment of the new Buda—it was called Felhévíz. The population of this settlement was Hungarian. On its territory stood a royal mansion and a church named after the Trinity, which became later the centre of a religious foundation. This foundation, the Holy Cross Convent, later a collegiate church chapter, became the feudal overlord of Felhévíz. The ferry landing-place opposite, on the left bank, was in the village of Jenő, from which the ferry took its name. This settlement, however, unlike Felhévíz, never developed into a town. The Mongol invasion of 1241 destroyed both Pest and Óbuda, and new settlements had to be built. The king planned the full reconstruction of Pest, and in 1244 consequently, granted the inhabitants of Pest a charter with a golden seal known as the Golden Bull of Pest. (Document I.) From this charter the original one, which had been destroyed approximately ten years earlier, can be reconstructed. In many ways it is similar to the town charters granted in Hungary in the first half of the thirteenth century, and very similar to that of Székesfehérvár. Its legal force extended to part of Pest Minor on the right bank as well. The most important economic privilege granted the town was what was then a rarity in Hungary—a rather primitively formulated Staple—i.e. foreign merchants were obliged to offer their merchandise for sale in Pest, and could only take it further if not purchased by the local merchants. They also received exemption from duties imposed within the country, while their right to elect their magistrate and their parish priest without hindrance proved to be of political value. The development of the economy, and the growing social division of labour made it increasingly necessary to set up market places where the peasants could barter agricultural produce for goods. The merchants exchanged their products for food, and the feudal lords gave money for articles of luxury. The municipal charters assured the free exchange of goods, unhampered, within the feudal system, and guaranteed the more or less undisturbed progress of the burghers of these towns under the direct jurisdiction of the king and free from interference by the nobles, which naturally led to the concentration of merchants and tradesmen in the town. The 1244 Golden Bull of Pest also guaranteed freedom of trade, and through the Staple forced foreign merchants to offer their merchandise for sale to the burghers of Pest. Politically it exempted the burghers from the rule of the feudal lords. Pest only enjoyed its privileges for some ten to twenty years. Owing to the false rumours of a fresh Mongol invasion, a new town was built on the Castle Hill of Buda. The documents of the foundation of this new town have not survived, but it may be surmised that some of the inhabitants of Pest, leading citizens for the most part, moved there. This appears from the fact that until the beginning of the fifteenth century, Pest, the town on the left bank, depended on its younger sister, Buda, on the right bank; the 1244 Golden Bull was transferred to the archives of Buda, and Buda also acquired the seal of Pest. The new seal of Pest showed its less advantageous position in law: it shows a fortress with only one tower as against the Buda (formerly Pest) seal which had three. This is also confirmed by 13
