The king's chief seat and the kingdom's first town.
On the castle hill above the Danube stand the royal palace, rebuilt at the end of the twelfth century by French masons for Béla III and his French queen, and the cathedral of St Adalbert with the archbishop's palace. Below the hill royal servants, merchants and craftsmen have grown into the most important town of the Árpád kingdom: here are the royal mint (by the town's tradition the only one until the early thirteenth century), the Danube port and the market, and a community of 'Latin' merchants of French, Walloon and Italian origin. When Frederick Barbarossa came through on crusade (1189), his chronicler called Esztergom the metropolis of the Hungarians.
The Hungarian order of the Cruciferi of St Stephen keeps a hospital here (Church matter).
Who holds it
- Name
- King Emeric (the royal seat and town); Archbishop Job holds the cathedral and his palace on the castle hill (Church map)
- Title
- Lord of the town
- Confidence
- medium
Lord in 1200
King Emeric (the royal seat and town); Archbishop Job holds the cathedral and his palace on the castle hill (Church map)
Overlord
King Emeric
How things stand that morning
Emeric's main residence and court that winter; the town is the political and economic centre of the kingdom.
Charter
No written town law or charter in 1200: Hungarian town privileges are granted from the 1230s onward. The 'Latins' live under customs of their own; the town's leading merchants form a council with a seal later in the thirteenth century.
Council
Not pinned for 1200; a council of the richest merchants (French, Walloon, Italian and Spanish by origin) is attested later in the thirteenth century.
Communities
Hungarians, royal servants, 'Latins' (French, Walloons, Italians), Jews (a community from the eleventh century); Muslim traders are known in the kingdom but not pinned at Esztergom.
Fairs and markets
Weekly market; fairs not pinned.
Militia
Not pinned; the castle is held by the king's men.
Walls and castle
Stone castle and royal palace on the castle hill, with the cathedral; the town below spreads along the river (its walls are not pinned for 1200).
Trade and crafts
The Danube trade between Regensburg, Vienna and the Balkans; the royal mint; luxury goods for the court; landing of goods on the Danube.
Places of note
- Royal palace and cathedral: Béla III's palace beside St Adalbert's cathedral.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: The royal seat, palace, mint and Latin merchants are well attested; the town's institutions in 1200 are not.
On the map: The town's near land is a few kilometres round the settlement; Hungarian towns of 1200 governed no district of their own.
Primary sources for Hungary
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- Chronicle of Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, Alberic of Trois-Fontaines (about 1227 to 1241, at the Cistercian abbey of Trois-Fontaines in Champagne). The widest net of any Latin chronicle for 1200, compiled from dozens of sources, many now lost. Read online
- The Austrian and Salzburg annals (kept in the 12th and 13th centuries, with continuations to the late 13th century). A family of monastic annals from Austria, Styria and Salzburg, printed together. Read online
- The Hypatian Chronicle (the Kievan Chronicle compiled about 1200 at the Vydubichi monastery; the Galician-Volhynian Chronicle in the 13th century). The southern record. Read online
- History of the bishops of Salona and Split, by Thomas the Archdeacon, Thomas of Split (about 1266). Written two generations later by a Split churchman born about 1200. Read online
- History of the doges of Venice (about 1229, with a continuation). The earliest surviving Venetian narrative close to the events. Read online
- The Deeds of the Hungarians, by the Anonymous Notary of King Béla, Anonymus (P. magister) (about 1200 to 1210, the date disputed). Not a record of events but a picture of the kingdom's nobility and geography as a courtier of about 1200 wished to see it: the clans and their lands, the castles and counties, the Vlachs, Cumans and other peoples of the Carpathian basin, all projected back onto the conquest. Read online
- The Book of Census of the Roman Church, Cencius Camerarius (Cencio Savelli, later Pope Honorius III) (1192, with later additions). The papal rent roll: every church, monastery, town and kingdom that owed a census to Rome in 1192, diocese by diocese, with the sums, followed by lists of papal lands and castles, the ceremonial Ordo and copies of charters. Read online
- The Registers of Pope Innocent III for 1199 to 1201, Innocent III and the papal chancery (22 February 1199 to 21 February 1201). The pope's outgoing letters for the year, in his chancery's own copy, touching nearly every realm in the atlas. Read online
4 more in the sources library for Poland, Hungary and the Adriatic.
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.