Horváth M. Ferenc (szerk.): Vác The heart of the Danube Bend. A historical guide for residents and globetrotters (Vác, 2009)
Tartalom
ST MICHAEL'S CHURCH 81 St Michael’s (Archangel) Church St Peter's Church may have been standing in the southern partofthearea ofourtown before the foundation of the Bishopric ofVác in the 11th century. We do not know where exactly it was and it is only the Illustrated Chronicle that tells us that it was built of stone. The remains of this church, which had already been ruined by the Ottoman era, might be hiding under the ground somewhere around Hétkápolna or Földváry Square. In the region north of the bishopric centre, which must have been developing ever since the establishment of the bishopric, stood St Margaret's Church. Concluding from the choice of the patron saint, the “trend" suggests that it was erected in the middle of the 12th century and was probably in use until the beginning of the Ottoman occupation. In the place of the present Március 15 Square there was a settlement in the early Árpád era with a rectory of its own before the Mongol Invasion. Previously, having little data on the territory, archaeologists reckoned that it was the German settlers arriving after the Mongol Invasion who established the first significant settlement in the area of the Main Square. However, the excavations of 2003-2005 preceding the reconstruction of the square revealed the fact that the Western newcomers settling down in the second part of the 13th century built their church in the place of anoth-The Main Street of Vác-German town with the Viennese Gate been destroyed during the Mongol Invasion. No remains of this former church were found, but there were quite a few graves unearthed which can be dated back to an early period of the Árpád era.These graves were from the earliest layer of the cemetery and they all had a very precise east-west orientation. One of them contained a ring used for braided hair from the first half of the Árpád period in the 11 -12th centuries. These early and well-dated graves prove the existence of a former church, which could have been built of wood or stone or even bricks and was destroyed during the Mongol Invasion. The German settlers arriving at Vác a few years later built their new church in its place, and - according to the rules of the church - they also surrounded it with a graveyard. The orientation of the new church was a bit less precise, some degrees north of the east-west axis, and the same orientation St Michael's Church with the Town Hall
