HUNGARIAN CONSERVATIVE : CORNATION OF SAINT KING STEPHEN and OTHER HUNGARIAN KINGS
Excerpt: Yet, the connection between the medieval foundation of the state, King St Stephen, and Fehérvár (meaning ‘white castle’), 60 kilometres from Buda, is still inseparable. Even the modern name of the town, Székesfehérvár, in use since the 16th century, is a reference to the royal throne (with the Hungarian ‘szék’ meaning ‘chair’ or ‘throne’). Concerning the royal seat, Fehérvár’s sacral–dynastic character is undoubtedly in its favour: namely, the burial here of the first Hungarian king St Stephen (reigned 1000–1038) and his son Prince Emeric (d. 1031). Both were canonized in 1083, and their tombs became a pilgrimage site of national fame. In the middle of the 11th century the Hungarian annals refer to the city as a ‘metropolis’ (literally ‘mother city’). The royal treasury and coronation insignia (which were temporarily transferred to Visegrád in the 14th century), the national banner of war, the keeping of the royal archives, and the coronation itself made it one of, if not the primary centre of the country. The strategic location of this non-swampy city was also unrivalled; in 1242 the Mongol armies could not capture it either. As early as 1055, a document that has survived in its original form recorded the earliest words written in Hungarian: ‘military road to Fehérvár’. The founder of the city is undoubtedly King St Stephen, and a few years after his coronation the town is also mentioned in several documents. Besides, the opening of the pilgrimage route to the Holy Land by Stephen around 1020 was at least of similar importance. Heading there, the pilgrims passed through Fehérvár, as did the Crusader armies crossing the Balkans to Constantinople and the Middle East.
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His original burial site was destroyed by the Ottoman's but in the 1930's a new mausoleum was built which contains the 11th-century sarcophagus of the deceased king. But his hand (whch didn't decompose, perhaps proving Stephen's sainthood, is venerated as a relic that is kept in Saint Stephen's Basilica in Budapest.Click on the label Wonderful-Hungary to get to the entire series on this theme.
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