Horváth M. Ferenc (szerk.): Vác The heart of the Danube Bend. A historical guide for residents and globetrotters (Vác, 2009)
Tartalom
EXCURSIONS AROUND THE TOWN 291 Treaty ofTrianon it became a border-town, which meant losing a part of its district. In 1951 it lost its status as a county-centre, which also impeded its development. The town of famous churches, museums, historical monuments and popular excursions started to revive at the end of the 20th cenury.The reconstruction and opening of Maria Valeria Bridge (2001) re-opened the way to its old district. Sights: Castle Museum in the buildings of Castle Hill presenting the history of the medieval palace (the architectural relics of the sometime St Adalbert Cathedral: the very first early Gothic building of Central Europe, the castle chapel; Archbishop János Vitéz's Renaissance study with the fresco of the four cardinal virtues) • traces of medieval Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance-style buildings with Baroque altera-Calvary tions • on the northern round bastion of the castle the statue of St Stephen's enthronment created by Miklós Melocco • the Classicist-style Basilica, the seat of the Roman Catholic Church in Hungary, built to the design of Pál Kühnel, János Packh and József Hild (1822-1869). The picture on the high altar, which is the largest altarpiece in the world painted on a single canvas, is Michelangelo Grigoletti's work and depicts the Assumption. The basilica has the biggest organ in Hungary, the crypt has been the burial place of the archbishops of Esztergom since 1820 • Renaissance Bakócz Chapel (1507-1519)- the treasury of the basilica • the ecclesiastic district with the seminary designed by József Hild, the prebendal houses and the teacher's training college of the archbishopric • Water-town below the castle • houses in Pázmány Street dating back to the Middle Ages • the building of the former County Hall, today Bálint Balassa Museum • Baroque Franciscan church (1728-1750) used by the Sisters of Mercy of Szatmár • Baroque group of statues erected in memory of the plague epidemic, the Plague Madonna (1740) • two-steepled Baroque church, originally owned by the Jesuits (1728-1738) • Jesuit monastery transformed into the residency of the archbishop by József Lippert's designs (1881-1882), with the Christian Museum in it • Calvary Chapel (1823) with late Baroque-Classicist row of Stations on St Thomas Hill • Danube Museum in the Baroque former agricultural building of the chapter • Mihály Babits Memorial House with an autograph-wall (the visitors' signatures) on Előhegy/hill • Maria Valeria Bridge (1895, reconstructed 2001) linking Esztergom and Párkány (Sturovo) The recently reconstructed Danube Bridge between Esztergom and Párkány Programmes: Summer Festival of Esztergom • openair performances in the castle theatre in summer • international guitar festival (August) • historical performances, weekend handicraft-fairs
