Esztergom, one of the oldest towns in Hungary, was a long time a frontier town, as also its name say it (the Old Slavonic name, Strěgom, means guard post). Erected by Celts, then conquered by Romans, who turned it into an important frontier point on the boundary of the province of Pannonia, the town was mastered successively by Germans and Avars. At about 500 AD, Slavic peoples settled there, in the 9th century, the region being part of Great Moravia. After the arrival of the Magyars, Géza chose Esztergom as his residence in 960, and his son, future Stephen I, was born in his palace built on the Roman castrum on the Várhegy (Castle Hill). Here, in Esztergom, he was baptised and later crowned. For almost 300 years it was the center of the country's political and economic life, and it has retained its importance even after moving the capital to Buda. Only the Ottoman conquest in 1526 brought a decline of the city.
Read more »