Esztergom District

Esztergom (Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈɛstɛrɡom] ; German: Gran; Latin: Solva or Strigonium; Slovak: Ostrihom, known by alternative names) is a city with county rights in northern Hungary, 46 kilometres (29 miles) northwest of the capital Budapest. It lies in Komárom-Esztergom County, on the right bank of the river Danube, which forms the border with Slovakia there. Esztergom was the capital of Hungary from the 10th until the mid-13th century when King Béla IV of Hungary moved the royal seat to Buda. Esztergom is the seat of the prímás (see Primate) of the Roman Catholic Church in Hungary, and the former seat of the Constitutional Court of Hungary. The city has a Christian Museum with the largest ecclesiastical collection in Hungary. Its cathedral, Esztergom Basilica, is the largest church in Hungary. Near the Basilica there is a campus of the Pázmány Péter Catholic University.

The Mária Valéria Bridge joins Esztergom in Hungary and Štúrovo in Slovakia, across the River Danube. The bridge is some 500 metres in length. It is named after Archduchess Marie Valerie of Austria (1868–1924), the fourth child of the Emperor of Austria-Hungary, Franz Josef and Elisabeth. The bridge was designed by János Feketeházy in 1893; he built several bridges on the Danube, including the Liberty Bridge (originally the Franz Joseph Bridge) in Budapest and the Elisabeth Bridge between Komárno and Komárom. Since its opening on 28 September 1895, the bridge has been destroyed twice. On 22 July 1919 the bridge was destroyed by a detonation at its first pier on its western side but the bridge was renovated in 1922 and completely reconstructed in 1926. During World War II, retreating German troops blew up the bridge on 26 December 1944 along with other bridges near Esztergom. Decades of intransigence between the Communist governments of Hungary and Czechoslovakia meant that the bridge was not rebuilt until the new millennium, finally reopening on 11 October 2001. Half the costs of the project were covered by a 10 million Euro grant from the European Union, as part of the EU PHARE project to assist applicant countries in their preparations to join the EU. The re-opening was marked with the issue of a Slovak stamp. The rebuilding of the bridge helped the local economy in the Ister-Granum Euroregion. As Slovakia and Hungary are part of the Schengen Area there are no border controls on the bridge. Both countries became part of the Schengen Area on 12 December 2007, allowing all immigration and customs checks to be lifted. As a young man, the writer Patrick Leigh Fermor walked from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople in 1933/34. His book A Time of Gifts ends on the bridge and the second volume, Between the Woods and the Water, begins with him crossing into Esztergom.

The Christian Museum (Hungarian: Keresztény Múzeum) is the largest ecclesiastical collection in Hungary; it conserves European and Hungarian works of art from the period between the 13th and 19th centuries. The permanent exhibition of the Christian Museum is situated on the second floor of the Primate's Palace in Esztergom-Víziváros, on the bank of the Danube river. The extensive collections of Hungarian, Italian, Dutch, German and Austrian paintings make this museum the third most important picture gallery in Hungary. Many works of art come from the territory of present-day Slovakia in which area part of the archdiocese of Esztergom lay at the time of the formation of the collection (the 1870s). Besides late medieval and Renaissance works of art — including the Calvary Altarpiece by Thomas of Coloswar, the Lord's Coffin from Garamszentbenedek, and the Passion scenes by Master MS — the baroque and modern collections, the collection of the decorative arts, and the collection of prints and drawings are significant.

Solva was an early name for what is now Esztergom, Hungary, in the province of Pannonia, during the Roman period. It was an important part of the limes line along the Danube. Solva was granted town rank by Publius Aelius Hadrianus in 121 AD.

Víziváros (meaning Watertown, Latin: Civitas Archiepiscopalis, German: Wasserstadt) is a neighborhood of Esztergom, Hungary on the right bank of the Danube, under the royal castle and the St. Adalbert Primatial Basilica. The name Watertown derives from the numerous hot springs in the area. Víziváros was established by Matthias Rátót, Archbishop of Esztergom in 1239. The town fell under Ottoman rule in 1543, and it was only taken back by Christian forces in 1683. During that 140 years, the Turks built baths, religious buildings and re-enforced the castle. The Öziçeli Hacci Ibrahim Mosque on Berényi Zsigmond street is the oldest still standing mosque of the Ottoman Empire along the Danube.After the siege of 1683 reconstruction of the town began, but during Rákóczi's War for Independence it was destroyed in the winter of 1705–1706. Víziváros was repopulated by Germans. In 1827 its population was 697. By 1891 the town had 1158 Hungarian residents. The Cathedral Library (Bibliotheca) opened in 1853. The library building was designed by József Hild. The Christian Museum was founded by archbishop János Simor in 1875, when he opened his private collection of religious art to visitors. The Primatial Palace was built in 1883. In 1895 Víziváros was merged with Royal Esztergom as third district. The same time neighboring Szentgyörgymező became fourth and Szenttamás became second district.

The Esztergom Synagogue is a building located in the town of Esztergom, Hungary. It was built in 1859, renovated in 1888, and severely damaged by a bombing during World War II. Since almost all Jewish people in the town were deported during the Holocaust and Communists subsequently gained control of the country, it has not been used for religious purposes since the 1940s.Contemporary historian János Németh wrote that the synagogue continued to deteriorate until 1962, when the city council bought it from the National Office of the Hungarian Israelites. It was later rebuilt and inaugurated as the House of Technology (Technika Háza) on September 28, 1964. However, another source states that in 1981 it became the House of Technology after repair work was done between 1980 and 1981 that "involved a strong simplification of the exterior" and "a complete transformation of the interior."Per Németh's account, many government members and skilled volunteers worked to rebuild Esztergom Synagogue between 1963 and 1964. On September 28, 1964, it was inaugurated as the House of Technology and became the home of the city's Organization of Technical and Natural Science Associations (MTESZ), which was founded on the same day.In 2006, it was bought by the municipality and now hosts a variety of cultural institutions and events.

The Primatial Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Adalbert (Hungarian: Nagyboldogasszony és Szent Adalbert prímási főszékesegyház), also known as the Esztergom Basilica (Hungarian: Esztergomi bazilika), is an ecclesiastic basilica in Esztergom, Hungary, the mother church of the Archdiocese of Esztergom-Budapest, and the seat of the Catholic Church in Hungary. It is dedicated to the Assumption of Saint Mary and Saint Adalbert. It is the largest church in Hungary. Its inner area is 5,600 m². It is 118 m long and 49 m wide. It has a reverberation time of more than 9 seconds. Its dome, forming a semi-sphere, is situated in the middle, and it has 12 windows. It is 71.5 m high inside (which makes it one of the tallest domes in the world), with a diameter of 33.5 metres, and is 100 m high from outside, the stairs count 400 steps counted from the crypt. The huge crypt, built in Old Egyptian style in 1831, is today the resting place of late archbishops, among others, József Mindszenty, famous for his opposition to both Nazi and Communist rule.

The Archdiocese of Esztergom–Budapest (Latin: Archidioecesis Strigoniensis–Budapestinensis) is a Latin Church archdiocese and primatial seat of the Catholic Church in Hungary and the metropolitan see of one of Hungary's four Latin Church ecclesiastical provinces. The archdiocese's archbishop retains the title of "Primate", which gives this see precedence over all other Latin Hungarian dioceses, including the fellow Metropolitan Archbishops of Eger, Kalocsa–Kecskemét and Veszprém, but the incumbent may be individually (and temporarily) outranked if one of them holds a (higher) cardinalate. Its current Archbishop is Péter Erdő.

Szenttamás (meaning: "Saint Thomas" (for Saint Thomas Becket) is the eastern part of the city of Esztergom in Hungary, on the right bank of the river Danube. It was a separate village until 1895, when it was merged with the "Royal Esztergom" as 2nd district, along with neighboring Víziváros and Szentgyörgymező. It's located on the Szent Tamás Hill.

The Dark Gate (or alternatively Dark Portal, Hungarian: Sötétkapu) is a tunnel located under the artificial slopes of Castle Hill near St. Adalbert's Basilica in Esztergom, Hungary. The tunnel is 90 metres long and follows the line of the castle's former eastern walls. The entire tunnel is vaulted and built in Neo-classical style.

Štúrovo (before 1948: Parkan; Hungarian: Párkány, German: Gockern, Turkish: Ciğerdelen) is a town in Slovakia, situated on the River Danube. Its population in 2018 was 10,279. The town is situated opposite the Hungarian city of Esztergom. The Mária Valéria bridge connects the settlements. The bridge was destroyed in 1944 during World War II, but reconstructed in 2001.

Magyar Suzuki Corporation is an automobile manufacturing plant, subsidiary of Suzuki, located in Esztergom, Hungary and founded in 1991 with investments from Suzuki Japan, the Hungarian Government, Itochu and the World Bank.