Description
Székesfehérvár was the political and ritual centre of medieval Hungary, the most important site of royal coronations and funerals. The city’s Medieval Ruin Garden is one of most signifi cant memorials to the foundation of the Hungarian state. At the site of the modern-day Coronation Square, King Stephen, founder of the Hungarian state, built a basilica dedicated to the Virgin Mary, which served as the sovereign’s private church. This basilica, located along a pilgrimage route to the Holy Land, became the most important site in the medieval Kingdom of Hungary and its sacral centre, as the nation’s kings were crowned there. Only those who received the Holy Crown in Székesfehérvár from the bishop of Esztergom were considered Hungary’s rightful rulers. In the more than half a millennium between its construction in 1018 and its occupation in 1543 by the Turks, 38 Hungarian kings were crowned in the basilica, of whom 15 were also buried there, including King Saint Stephen himself. What is thought to be his carved stone sarcophagus can still be seen in the Ruin Garden today. The coronation basilica which housed the royal relics was renovated many times over the centuries, and the kings of the Houses of Árpád and Anjou enlarged the church according to their wishes. The last major reconstruction took place under Matthias Hunyadi, who expanded the church to almost 100 metres. After the Ottoman conquest of Hungary, the basilica was looted and its graves were damaged. Its fate was ultimately sealed during the Fifteen Years’ War in 1601 when it was blown up with gunpowder. After the wars to expel the Turks, it was not in the interests of the Habsburg rulers to rebuild the Hungarian coronation church. Its ruins only returned the limelight in the second half of the 19th century, when large-scale excavations began, revealing the basilica’s structure that can be seen in the Ruin Garden today. The Ruin Garden in Székesfehérvár has been a national memorial site since 2012.
