Gyöngyössy Márton (szerk.): Perspectives on the Past. Major Excavations in County Pest (Szentendre, 2008)

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St. Mihály's Church at Vác

(6100-4500 ВС)

(4500-2700 ВС)

(2700/2500-800 ВС)

There were several churches and parishes serving their respective congregations at the time of the Mongolian invasion in 1241 in the town of Vác, which was made an episcopal seat in the 11th century. The church of the town quarter around Március 15 Square and by the modern (and medieval) ferry in the town’s northern part, which had been established in the Conquest period, had certainly been built by the early 13th century. It is not known whether this church had been built from wood, bricks or stone since not one single relic of the one-time building could be identified during the campaigns between 2003 and 2005. Its presence is merely indicated by the fact that several burials predating the Mongolian invasions were found in the area, and we know that following the conversion to Christianity, people could only be buried in the graveyards around the churches. The Mongolians devastated Vác in 1241. The quarter around the modern main square was called Német-város [German town] after the western migrants settled there by the landowning bishops. The German occupants erected a new church on the spot of the destroyed one and dedicated it to St. Mihály. The new church is first mentioned in 1319 and later charters record the names of the parish priests, their income and the holdings of St. Mihály’s Church. The town’s nobility was buried inside the church, the others in the church’s graveyard.