Tari Edit: Pest megye középkori templomai (Studia Comitatensia 27. Szentendre, 2000.)

My task was to collect the medieval churches from the territory of the modern Pest county. For Buda archdeanery of the Veszprém Bishopric and certain parts of the Esztergom Archbishopric were situated at this territory, I am studying these settlements and churches together with the Vác Diocese. Veszprém Bishopric is considered to be the earliest diocese of Hungary formed before year 1000. It may have been founded in the time of Géza. Its territory included five comitats from the knee of the Danube to river Dráva. There were also Buda and Szentendre Archdeaneries and Csepel Island (Nagysziget) under the authority of the bishop of Veszprém. In Esztergom Archbishopric included Hont Archdeaneries. Although the Vác Diocese can be considered to be the poorest bishopric during the Middle Ages, at the same time it was led by the most prestigious bishops, because they used to be the most important members of the royal court. FORMATION OF COMITAT PEST We have only poor data considering the history of the origin of comitat Pest. Historians disagree, whether comitat Pest was founded during the reign of St. István or it was formed later. The first appearance of the comitat - as comitatus - in a record is dated to 1255. The predecessor of the later comitats Pest and Pilis was the comitat of Visegrád spreading to both banks of the Danube. Pest and Pilis had not been independent units during the Árpádian Age. King István put his seat first to Esztergom, then to Székesfehérvár neglecting Pest-Buda. This is supported by the fact that he neither founded a bishopric here, nor placed the centre of the comitat here, but to castle of Visegrád which defended Esztergom from the east. The later comitat Pilis originally was a royal wood estate occupying the Pilis Mountains in the territory of comitat Visegrád.

419 The medieval comitat Pest is one of the less definable ones. The accurate definition of its territory is made difficult by the fact that for example the ispánság (administrative unit) of Pilis came out of it gradually after the middle of the 13

th century. Transdanubian parts of comitat Pest sometimes belonged to comitat Fejér, sometimes to Pest. The same was the situation with the settlements, estates of comitats Csongrád (south of Pest), Szolnok (east of Pest) and Heves and Nógrád (north of Pest). MEDIEVAL SETTLEMENTS OF PEST COUNTY The archaeological survey of four former districts of the modern Pest county were published: the ones of Buda, Szentendre, Szob and Vác Districts.

420 The full collection of archaeological and written records, that of the results of local historians, the comparison of all these data, the identification of sites and settlements etc. is essential in the course of examination the medieval history of the county. However, if we compare the archaeological research of settlements of the Árpádian and Late Middle Age we'll find great disproportion. So, our data are not similar considering different parts of the county. Despite of it, we observe the same phenomenon as in the whole of Hungary (and this is also supported by the data considering the churches): we can find much more archaeological traces of 1 Györffy 1998. 583. Also here see the detailed history of the formation of the comitat. 420 MRT volumes 7. and 9. 1986,1993. 239