“Here is Hungarian Rome!” historical walk –

Route 3

The first city of Hungary:
Esztergom – Hévíz and the Royal City

Historical walk every Sunday from 14:00 – in Hungarian
Minimum number of participants: 8 persons

Pre-registration required!

(Upon request, the walk can be held in English, French and German as well at the time that suits your visit. Ask for an offer in case you are interesed!)

Meeting point – route:
The walk will start from the corner of the Cathedral Library, in front of the Cathedralis Tours Travel Agency (corner of Péter Pázmány / Liszt Ferenc streets).

Hévíz: We start our walk under the plane trees of the Little Danube, learning about the history of Hévíz and its baths. In the early Middle Ages, the settlement of Hévíz was established around Lake Hévíz by the warm water springs at the foot of the Szent Tamás Hill, between the Archbishop’s Water Town and the Royal Town. The warm spring water on the surface was already used for bathing by the Romans. The first mention of the first public baths in Hungary, built in the time of King Béla III, dates back to the 1170s of the 12th century. The warm karst waters were also popular in the Turkish period, and mills and baths were built on the site. In the 1840s, the St. Stephen’s Baths Hotel was opened in the baths, which had been the residence of Lajos Kossuth and István Széchenyi, in 1912 the indoor swimming pool (industrial national heritage under protection), and by 1927 the present-day Olympic pool, the St. Stephen’s Artesian Baths, was built.

Royal City: walking along Szent Lőrincz Street, we will reach the corner of Széchenyi Square. Nearby stood the 11th century city gate, known from the country’s oldest remaining coat of arms. At the beginning of the street-like main square, we can see the floor plan of the St. Lőrinc parish church marked in the paving of the roadway, which was already standing in the 11th century and was the church of the royal court members living in the town. The square’s multi-storey houses were largely built in the 18th and 19th centuries on the foundations of the ruined medieval town, using its stones. Among them stands out the 2-storey Romantic-style building of the Savings Bank, built around 1862 to a design by József Hild.

Among the Baroque-Rococo buildings, the most prominent is the former lodge of the former freedomfighter, colonel János Bottyán, now the Town Hall. Among the Baroque buildings of the Bottyán J. Street, the old seat of Esztergom County, the Meszéna House, famous for its sunny gate, and the old Benedictine monastery are very beautiful. Near the church stood the first Franciscan church, erected by King Béla IV and destroyed during the Ottoman period, in which the king and his family found their final resting place (the only unexplored royal tomb of the Árpád dynasty. This is commemorated by a relief of the king and the prematurely deceased Prince Béla, placed in the wall of the church fence, the work of the famous sculptor János Nagy).

We walk back along Deák Ferenc Street towards Széchenyi Square. After stopping in front of the street’s interesting homes (the popular writer’s house of Ferenc Csepreghy (1842-1880), the Art Nouveau wing of the Megyeháza (1910), the building of the Főreál Gymnasium designed by József Hild and János Prokopp (1853), etc.), we reach the corner of Szent Miklós Street and Deák F. Street. Here stands the so-called Mayor’s House, designed around 1760 by Ignác Oratsek, the architect of the Royal Palace of Maria Theresa in Buda (the one-storey Baroque palace is one of the jewels of early architecture). ) At the corner of the town hall, marked out on the pavement, we can see a section of the fence wall of the parish church of St Nicholas of Latina (the collective name for the various nationalities of medieval merchants) (the church was built on top of the Bottyán house in the late 17th century).

The beautiful, one-storey Baroque palace at the corner of King Béla IV and Jókai Mór Street was the Esztergom house of the Bajnai Sándor counts in the 18th-19th centuries. The most prominent building on Antal Pór Square is the parish church of St. Peter and Paul of the Royal Town, completed in 1762, with the main altarpiece painted by János Vaszary in 1896.

Kis-Duna promenade: on Szent Miklós street we reach the Kis-Duna promenade. The 1500 m long promenade, planted in 1913-14 under huge plane trees, is one of Esztergom’s most popular promenades.

This is the end of our walking tour of the royal city.

Duration of the walk: 1,5 – 2 hours.
Participation fee: 2 000 HUF/person for Hungarian guiding (free for children under 6 years).

Upon request, the walk can be held in English, French and German as well at the time that suits your visit. Please contact us to schedule your historical walk and ask for an offer in case you are interesed!

Information – application: in person at the address below, by phone (33) 520-260, 70 391-9992, cathedralisegom@gmail.com, kiditek.pal@gmail.com or on our Facebook page.

H-2500 Esztergom, Bajcsy-Zsilinszky E. u. 26.

Tel.: (33) 520 260; Fax: (33) 520-261

E-mail: cathedralisegom@gmail.com.

Ministry of Economy registration number: R-1400/1996/2001