Downtown, other locations - Vác (Waitzen), Ungarn

Position:

GPS-Koordinaten: Breiten 47°46'31", Längengrad 19°7'49" (N47 46.52 - E19 7.82) Karte

View of the double spires of the St. Anne's Piarist Church

The Roman Catholic Piarist religious order was founded in 1597 by Saint Joseph Calasanctius, who has a statue for example on the facade of the Piarist Church of Vác, above the balcony. Soon after in 1642 their expansion reached the border of Poland and Hungary. Firstly they reached Podolin, Privigye (Prievidza) and Nyitra (Nitra) towns, which are in the present-day Slovakia, then in 1714 they already arrived in the southern border of the "Felvidék" ("Upper Hungary"), the Danube Bend and the surroundings of Vác. The bishop of Vác welcomed them so much because he believed they will help him to achieve his big aim, to suppress the Calvinists in Vác. So from then the Piarists ran the parish until 1717, when Count Michael Althann was consecrated as the new bishop.

St. Ann's Piarist Church and Monastery of Vác

The initially pure baroque style Piarist Church of Vác was built between 1725-1745, but the original onion-domed towers were rebuilt in 1886 due to their very bad condition. On the facade of the church over the balcony there is a statue of Saint Joseph Calasanctius, the founder of the Piarist Order. Among the fixtures it should be mentioned the unique altar with a Venetian mirror. The ornate church tabernacle (small cupboard, chest or cabinet) on the main altar was made in 1759. The church is situated on the "Szentháromság tér" ("Holy Trinity Square") which was a fish marked in the past.

Episcopal Cathedral of Vác (sometimes also called Vác Dome or Great Church of Vác)

The building of the Cathedral of Vác (in Hungarian "Váci Székesegyház") was the decision of Károly Eszterházy, who was the bishop of Vác and later also bishop of Eger town, where today a square and a university college preserve his name. He had the fence which separated the Hungarian and German inhabitants broken down and had the Konstantin Square made which became the site of the planned cathedral.

The cathedral has impressive dimensions: 72 meters long, 34 meters in width and the dome is 55 meters tall. Its tower clock was made by the Rancz Első Magyar Toronyóragyár (literally "Rancz's First Hungarian Tower Clock Factory"). The church was consecrated in 1772 and the furnishment was completed five years later.

Holy Trinity column in front of the Piarst Church of St. Anne

The baroque style sandstone Holy Trinity Column was created in 1755 and it commemorates the plague epidemic of 1740-1741. The sculpture represents primarily the patron saint of plagues, and also the ecclesiastical coat of arms of Vác town, which was at that time divided into Püspök-Vác and Káptalan-Vác ("Bishop-Vác" and "Chapter-Vác" dioceses) by the church. Behind the sculpture group on the square the entrance of the Thermal Bath and Swimming Pool of Vác can be found.

The so-called Greek Church of Vác

The late baroque style Orthodox so-called Greek Chruch ("Görög-templom") was built in 1790 by Southern Slavic merchant families who settled down in Vác. In 1963 it was converted to a museum, since 1973 it houses the Tragor Ignác Museum and other temporary exhibitions.

Right next to the exhibition hall of the Greek Church there is a 700 years old stone cellar in the house at 19 Március 15 tér (square). This is the place of a permanent exhibition called "Memento Mori", which presents the 18th-century cemetery crypt that was found in the Church of the Whites ("Fehérek temploma"). By the exhibited artifact not just the burial culture of that time can be explored, but also the daily life of those people.

The huge door of the Episcopal Cathedral of Vác

The construction was begun by the plans of the Austrian architect Franz Anton Pilgram, the foundation was laid in 1761. After Kristóf Migazzi became the bishop of Vác he looked for a more cost-effective solution and called the French-born Austrian architect Isidore Canevale to design a less expensive cathedral on the already completed foundations. The head of the construction was the same person who designed the Great Church of Kecskemét, the Piarist friar Gáspár Oswald.

Episcopal Cathedral of Vác (Váci székesegyház)

Since the establisment of the Bishopric of Vác (in Hungarian "Váci Püspökség") the current one is already the third episcopal cathedral in the town, and also on the third location. The first cathedral was erected in the age of King Géza I of Hungary from the Árpád dynasty (the second half of the 11th century), that church was situated in the former Castle of Vác, on the site of the present-day Franciscan church on the Géza király tér (square). It was destroyed during the Mongol Invasion of Hungary (in Hungarian "Tatárjárás", 1241-1242), the Mongols set it on fire.

The second one was the St. Michael's Parish Church ("Szent Mihály-plébániatemplom") which was built around the early-14th century by South German settlers who arrived here at the invitation of King Béla IV of Hungary. It was built on the place of a 11th-12th-century smaller church on the location where today the town square of Vác ("Március 15. tér") is situated. Sometimes in the early-15th centuryThe building was rebuilt and extended in gothic style. This church was ruined during the Turkish wars and occupation era (in Vác it was between 1544-1686), but the Christians allowed to use it all the while. After the Turks were driven out of the town (1686) the Catholics took the ruined building from the Protestants who used it untin then. The Catholics wanted to make it as an episcopal seat, but despite the more expansions of the building it still wasn't suitable to be a cathedral. Perhaps also due to this in 1760 the construction works that were started in 1755 were stopped by Bishop Károly Eszterházy, and he decided to built a completely new main church on a third site.

This became the current Vác Cathedral or Cathedral of the Assumption and St Michael ("Nagyboldogasszony püspöki székesegyház") on the present-day Konstantin tér (square). The church was completed in 1772, and the interior is in 1777. Under the entire church there is an undercroft (crypt) with the burial places of bishops, canons and secularist peoples, separated from each other.