A Thousand Years of the Church in Veszprém [antikvár]

T X he figures of St Stephen and the Blessed Gisella, carved in stone, ceremoniously receive visitors to Veszprém Castle. They radiate a feeling of belonging to this locality. Their dignified dress and posture, however, convey that Hungary's first king and queen were at home all over the Carpathian Basin. For Veszprém, as the centre of a county, played a part in the process of establishing the new Hungárián state. Its importance was even greater in organizing the Hungárián church, as an endowment, and because of the extensive area covered by the see. The foundation stone of the Hungárián church was laid in 1001 at the Council of Ravenna. The autumn before, Popé Sylvester II had sent the crown requested for the coronation of Stephen and Gisella. Now, in the presence of Astericus, the envoy who had brought that request, the Popé authorized an ecclesiastical structure in Hungary. He raised Esztergom to the rank of an archbishopric, governing a new province as materei caput (mother and head). This, however, does not exclude the possibility (attested to only by two charters of centuries later, in 1276 and 1277) that Veszprém may have been the country's first see, in existence befő re the year 1000. There is support for this assumption in the advanced level of state and church organization in the Transdanubian regions. St Michael's Church at Veszprém is already mentioned in Pannonhalma Abbey's deed of foundation in 1002. The deed of endowment of Veszprém see, alsó dated 1002, states that Stephen's bishopric consisted of four castles and the counties belonging to them: Veszprém, Fehérvár, Kolon and Visegrád. That meant the Bishop of Veszprém's authority covered most of the territory west of the Danube, and as medieval Fejér County included western parts of the region between the Danube and the Tisza, his sway extended there as well. Kolon Castle, to the south of Little Balaton, controlled the district of Zala. It alsó emerges from the deed of endowment that somé estates granted to St Martin's (Pannonhalma) Abbey in the same year had belonged to the see of Veszprém. Anotherargument for Veszprém's early importance as a bishopric, apart from its vast territory, rests with the later title "City of Queens". Veszprém was the seat of the Blessed Gisella and the Hungárián queens who succeeded her. Its bishop was ex officio Chancellor to the Queen of Hungary, and one of his privileges was to crown the queen. This prerogative survived for more than 900 years. The last Bishop of Veszprém to exercise it was Báron Károly Hornig, who crowned Queen Zita in the Church of Our Lady in Buda Castle (better known as the Matthias Church) in 1916.