A Historical and Archival Guide to Székesfehérvár (Székesfehérvár, 2003)

A SUMMARY OF THE HISTORY OF SZÉKESFEHÉRVÁR

nately of no effect, at this time to search the archives of the former chapter.) Owing to Marie Theresa, the head-relic of King Saint Stephen formerly kept in Bratislava was donated to the cathedral of Székesfehérvár. The town received the head-relic with all due solemnity on 2 April 1778. The parish of the Upper-town was established the same year, previously the whole town (until the end of the Turkish rule) belonged to the ecclesiastical administration of the city centre parish. Due to the measures of Joseph II in September 1 785 Székesfehérvár lost its status as royal free borough, and fell under the authority of the District Lord Lieutenant. Town management was also reformed; administration and jurisdiction became separated. In 1787 the formerly unknown mayoralty was introduced. Previously the Chief Constable had been the leader of the town, whose sphere of authority was now reduced to administrative duties. The mayor was put in charge of financial and administrative issues. After the death of Joseph II the legal status of the town was restored to the former one. The first German school of the town was opened in 1693 near the Town Hall, the documents mention the Hungarian school only a decade later. Boys' and girls' elementary schools were opened in the 1 770s and in 1832 respectively. (There had been school education for girls from 1807 in a classroom built in the yard of the former German school.) The other town districts did not have elementary schools until the first decade of the 19

th century. The grammar school of the Jesuit order was opened in 1702 and was run until the order was suppressed in 1773. The Paulite order took over the school, but Joseph II suppressed this order as well on 20 March 1786. Following the Paulites the running of the 6-grade royal grammar school fell on the Piarist monk Bernát Benyák. The army used the monastery in Main street as a supply depot, and during the Napoleonic wars as a military hospital. The Cistercian order took over the grammar school in the autumn of 1813. During and after the Revolution and War of Independence it was a military hospital again until 1850. However, education was not suspended; in 1851 the school earned the higher grammar school status. In the 1870s a new school building was built for the institution. Several distinguished scholars can be found among the grammar school teachers. The historian György Pray and the poet Dávid Baróti