Esztergom ( ; german: Gran; la, Solva or ; sk, Ostrihom, known by
alternative names
Alternative or alternate may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* Alternative (''Kamen Rider''), a character in the Japanese TV series ''Kamen Rider Ryuki''
* ''The Alternative'' (film), a 1978 Australian television film
* ''The Alternative ...
) is a
city with county rights
A city with county rights (or urban county, Hungarian: ''megyei jogú város'', MJV) is a level of administrative subdivision in Hungary. Since 1994 all county seats are automatically awarded this status, and since 2012 this is the only way a new ...
in northern
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...
, northwest of the capital
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
. It lies in
Komárom-Esztergom County
Komárom-Esztergom ( hu, Komárom-Esztergom megye, ; german: Komitat Komorn-Gran; sk, Komárňansko-ostrihomská župa) is an administrative Hungarian county in Central Transdanubia Region; its shares its northern border the Danube with Slova ...
, on the right bank of the river
Danube
The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...
, which forms the border with
Slovakia
Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...
there. Esztergom was the capital of Hungary from the 10th until the mid-13th century when King
Béla IV of Hungary
Béla IV (1206 – 3 May 1270) was King of Hungary and Croatia between 1235 and 1270, and Duke of Styria from 1254 to 1258. As the oldest son of King Andrew II, he was crowned upon the initiative of a group of influential noblemen in his father ...
moved the royal seat to
Buda
Buda (; german: Ofen, sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Budim, Будим, Czech and sk, Budín, tr, Budin) was the historic capital of the Kingdom of Hungary and since 1873 has been the western part of the Hungarian capital Budapest, on the ...
.
Esztergom is the seat of the ''prímás'' (see
Primate
Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians (monkeys and apes, the latter including huma ...
) of the
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
in Hungary, and the former seat of the
Constitutional Court of Hungary
The Constitutional Court of Hungary ( hu, Magyarország Alkotmánybírósága) is a special court of Hungary, making judicial review of the acts of the Parliament of Hungary. The official seat of the Constitutional Court is Budapest. Until 2012 ...