Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. Az István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 13. 1972 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1974)
The Meeting of the Commission for Urban History Székesfehérvár, 26 March 1972. - Kralovánszky Alán: The early history of Alba Regia in the light of archaeological excavations. XIII, 1972. p. 305. - Nagy Lajos: Some problems of the modern history of Székesfehérvár. XIII, 1972. p. 305.
THE EARLY HISTORY OF ALBA REGIA IN THE LIGHT OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS I. The Problem of the City Nucleus. In 1971 the remnants of a church built of stone were unearthed on the highest point of the city. Each side of the quadrangular building was joined by a semicircular apse. This church may be identified with the edifice raised by Prince Géza (872 — 997), his later burial place. On the testimony of the excavation the church and the settlement of the Prince was protected by a mound. We may estimate the full height of the earthwork to 10 — 15 metres. The inner area of the castle (civitas) fortified in this manner may be estimated to 0.1 — 0.2 km 2 , thus it is apt for the location of the family and the retinue of the Prince only. At the same time there existed a contemporary settlement and cemetery outside the walls of the earthwork. In the beginning of the eleventh century the centre of the settlement was transferred to the suburb ; here it was that King Stephen I. (997 — 1038) raised „proprium capellam" . The basilica, serving also purposes of public law, enhanced the character, significance and extension of the settlement. In the early eleventh century a new parish church was built as well ; its remnants have been uncovered in 1970 and may be identified with the church of the Holy Cross. The paper deals with two sets of problems, raised by the research of the modern history of Székesfehérvár (and the Hungarian cities) : the methods and results of topographical research, utilizing archivistic sources, and the investigation of market-areas, determining the economic role of the cities. The historical topography of the Hungarian cities cannot be outlined on the basis of archaeological and documentary material only. By drawing maps, based on the available land registers of the late seventeenth and eighteenth century, not only the late seventeenth century structure of settlement may be defined, but also the late (even early?) medieval settlement and the city groundplan, dating from the pre-Turkish times at any rate. At Székesfehérvár we transferred the data of the 1712 land register to the map made in 1826 by J. Wüstinger. The area, structure and density of the settlement attested by this map are identical to the early sixteenth century situation, the shapes of the plots are the same as in the early 1500s. The late medieval traditions were preserved by the Turkish rule unchanged. In front of the basilica, to the west there lay the market-place of the city. At present it has an „L"-shaped ground-plan and the area of 0.036 km 2 . It is probable, however, that the market-place had a quadrangular ground-plan in the early centuries, covering an area of 0.1 km 2 . II. The Problem of the Roads. In the Roman Period the crossroad of the main territorial highways was situated at a distance of 14 km to the south of the early civitas, as proved by archaeological observations. This crossroad, situated in the open country, was transferred by Prince Géza to the neighbourhood of the civitas. The early city nucleus was surrounded by a chain of settlements in a radius of 3 km; of these eight cemeteries are known. Each of the settlements controlled one of the roads. The estimated extension of the city and its immediate neighbourhood is 25 km 2 , its early eleventh century population may be assessed to 3000 souls. The influence of the city is marked by another chain of eleventh century settlements, in a radius of 10 km. A. Kralovánszky After the expulsion of the Turks the real development of Székesfehérvár and the prominence of its central character came to the fore in the middle of the eighteenth century; this was due to the economic strengthening of the surroundings of the city (i.e. the county) during the Wars of Austrian Inheritance. This is borne out also by the research on the market-areas. The wider market-area establishes the character of Székesfehérvár as a marketing centre; the narrower market-area proves the limited range of this commercial centre, as large territories were drawn from its area by the neighbouring market-centres. Investigations on the market-areas do not only furnish data to the research of the economic role of the cities, but also to the determining of the Hungarian city network. In defining urban character the number of population is not a primary factor; the main importance should be attributed to the economic factors, or the richness, diversity and influence of the functions of a centre. L. Nagy SOME PROBLEMS OF THE MODERN HISTORY OF SZÉKESFEHÉRVÁR 20 Alba Regia 3Q5
