Horváth M. Ferenc (szerk.): Vác The heart of the Danube Bend. A historical guide for residents and globetrotters (Vác, 2009)
Tartalom
56 VÁC IN THE ÁRPÁD ERA (895-1 301) However, the excavations of St Mihály's (St Michael Archangel) Church, which was built here later, revealed the fact that there must have been another church here - probably built of wood - before the Mongol Invasion. No remnants were found, but the burial places all around prove its existence. South of the Main Square, in the area of today's Múzeum Street, Galamb Street and Tímár Street there was a settlement in this early period. We assume that it had a name of its own. It was situated in an area which was not threatened by floods. The pithouses found on the site at 9 Múzeum Street are the same type and age as the ones in the Main Square. The mouth of Gombás Stream might have been a moorland in the Middle Ages. South of here, on the next hilltop at the junction of the roads running towards Gödöllő and Budapest there was another settlement in the early Árpád era. These two settlements can be related to two graveyards of the 10-11th centuries. One of them is at the junction at Gödöllő, the other one is south of the Gombás Stream, near the present sports field. We know only a few of the graves, most of which were opened decades ago by inexpert hands, or the finds have lost, so we have relatively little information about them. What we know is that a pot with some food in it was placed into the grave with the body. The graves in the cemetery lying further southwards were dug in straight lines, and the deceased wore elegant clothes. The precious metal jewellery found in the graves indicates that - at least some of - the population were well-todo people.These cemeteries ceased to be used in the 11th century by orders of King Stephen I and his successors, because from that time on it was coma Stirrup (PMMI-TIM 53.29.1) pulsory for the inhabitants to bury the dead in the churchyard around the new Christian churches. We do not know the place of the stone chapel named after St Peter mentioned above, but on the evidence of the Chronicle, the situation of the early medieval settlements and the late medieval sources we can assume that it was to be found either south of the Gombás Stream at Hétkápolna, or north of the stream in the surroundings of Földváry Square. At the time of its foundation, in the first half of the 11 th century, before the establishment of the bishopric it must have been important ecclesiastic institution visited by the people from several villages. After the foundation of the bishopric, probably in the first half of the 12th century a church dedicated to St Margaret of Antioch might have been built in the place of the present Múzeum Street or nearby, south of Konstantin Square. We do not have any record of the church which stood in the Main Square and was destroyed during the Mongol Invasion. In the relatively small area described above, apart from the cathedral three churches had been built by the last century of the Árpád era, which indicates significant financial and demographical development. As time passed by, the names of the smaller, originally independent settlements could have been forgotten or were remembered only by the local people for some generations. People from the neighbourhood and the travellers called the diocesan see and the settlements around it Vác. The fact that the Sicilian Arab geographer el Idrisi* who worked in the middle of the 12th century, found Vác important enough to list It among the most significant Hungarian towns shows its prestige. He mentioned it as Bászu and reported that it was 80 miles far from Eger. Spear (PMMI-TIM 52,5.42) * Abu Abd Allah Muhammad al-ldrisi al-Qurtubi al-Hasani (1100-1165 or 1166) Arab geographer, cartographer and traveller who lived in Sicily at the court of King Roger II.
