Horváth M. Ferenc (szerk.): Vác The heart of the Danube Bend. A historical guide for residents and globetrotters (Vác, 2009)
Tartalom
VÁC IN THE ÁRPÁD ERA (895-1 301) 53 German warrior of the 10th century of the Virgin Mary, which had been built by him”. We can consider the main point of the story true: Géza must have supported the Bishopric of Vác with generous grants which helped build (or finish building) the cathedral where he himself was put to eternal rest. However, it is quite unlikely that the foundation of the bishopric could also be attributed to him, and it seems to be very probable that St Peter's Church had been built even earlier, at the beginning of the 11th century. The parish priests of later periods did not have any written documents about it, so they needed to have one made. The Chronicle that we know might also have aimed to convince the readers that the priests of St Peter's Church had rightfully protested against the authority of the highly respected bishops of Vác with their seat only a few hundred yards away, since the revelation regarding the place of their church had happened weeks (or months) before that of the cathedral's. (According to medieval Hungarian canon law, the churches established before the foundation of the bishopric whose area they lay on were free from the bishops' control.) We should not believe either that until 1074 there had been a thick, deserted forest here. The Illustrated Chronicle provides a detailed description of the events when after Géza's enthronement, still in 1074, Solomon accompanied by the German emperor and his armies broke into the country. The aggressors were proceeding along the northern side of the Danube, then having crossed # German warrior of the 10th century Emperor Henry IV the Vág and all the other rivers flowing into the Danube, they reached our town. According to the Chronicle Emperor Henry was persuaded to finish the campaign and return home by the Patriarch of Aquileia (an ecclesiastical rank higher than that of the archbishop), who had been bribed by the Hungarians and other German leaders. This is the context for the first written allusion to Vác. (Remember that the Hungarian Chronicle mentioned above was written in the 14th century.) The godly monk, who was writing the annual of the Benedictine Monastery of Iburg in the faraway Saxony, listing the events that had happened in the year 1074 thought it important to mention that "King Henry ravaged Hungary as far as Vác". He used the German form "Wazenburg" but it does not mean that there was a castle here at the time (the German word "Burg” means "castle"). During the next, more peaceful year Géza had a list made of the properties of the Benedictine Abbey of Garamszentbenedek (Hronsky Benadik in Slovak) which he founded. The deed of foundation mentions the St Mary Bishopric in Vác as a neighbour of the village named Alpár on the River Tisza. The Abbey of Garamszentbenedek gained the forest of Naszály, a goldsmith called Nesku and his brothers, and also a considerable piece of landed property as endowments. We do not know whether Nesku and his family lived in Vác or in the village of Naszály or somewhere nearby, but they and their descendants could have been
