Kalocsa (; or Kalača; or Калоча; ) is a town in Bács-Kiskun county, Hungary. It lies south of Budapest. It is situated in a marshy but highly productive district, near the left bank of the Danube River. Historically it had greater political and economic importance than at present.
Description Kalocsa is the Episcopal see of one of the four Catholic archbishops of Hungary. Amongst its buildings are a fine cathedral, the archiepiscopal palace, an astronomical observatory, a seminary for priests, and colleges for training teachers. The residents of Kalocsa and its wide-spreading communal lands are chiefly employed in the cultivation of paprika, fruit, flax, hemp and cereals, in the capture of waterfowl and in fishing.
Kalocsa is one of the oldest towns in Hungary. The present archbishopric, founded about 1135, is a development of a bishopric said to have been founded in 1000 by King Stephen the Saint. It suffered much during the 16th century from the invasions of Ottoman soldiers, who ravaged the country.
A large part of the town was destroyed by a fire in 1875, before buildings were constructed of more fireproof materials and when many used open fires for heating and cooking.
History
The Baroque provincial town in the Great Plain lies approximately south of Budapest on the east side of the Danube. The town is almost as old as the Hungarian state itself. After the Conquest, the tribe of Prince Árpád settled down here. Later, along with Esztergom, Kalocsa was an archdiocese founded by King Stephen in the early years of the Hungarian state. The first archbishop of the town was Asztrik, who brought the crown to Stephen from the Pope. In the first decade of the 11th century, the first church was built. In the Middle Ages history of Hungary, some archbishops served as generals due to prior secular careers in the military and a dearth of qualified commanders and were subsequently drafted by their secular princes. For example, Ugrin Csák (archbishop from 1219 till 1241) was the leader against the Tartars at the battle of Mohi 11 April 1241. Another significant general was Pál Tomori (who was archbishop from 1523 till 1526), the leader of the Hungarian army against the Ottomans. He was killed in an action at the battle of Mohács.
The Turks entered Kalocsa on August 15, 1529. With people of the town dispersed, nobody cultivated the lands, and the archiepiscopal status lost its importance. In 1602, Hungarian Calvinistic Haiduk burned down Kalocsa. After the 148 years lasting rule, on 13 October 1686 the Turks burnt down the castle of Kalocsa and withdrew their troops. Peace was delayed because of the uprising against the Habsburgs led by the Transylvanian Prince Ferenc Rákóczi II.
The returned archbishops tried to increase the population and attracted new residents. Cardinal Imre Csáki (1710–1732) recovered the lands for Kalocsa and its neighbours. They organized a large (about 23,000 hectares) territory, including marshlands, gardens, and vineyards near Kalocsa.
In the 18th century, the villeinage held the lands. The next class were the craftswomen and craftsmen. The first charter of incorporation was mentioned in 1737 in Kalocsa. In 1769 a total of 90 craftswomen and men lived in the town. Because of the clergy and the schools, the population had many educated people. Kalocsa became a centre in Hungary again but it did not recover the stature it had before the Ottoman invasion and occupation.
The industrial development of the 19th and 20th century did not come to Kalocsa. The railway was built too late, in 1882. Furthermore, in 1886 the town lost its rank of town, which was given back in 1921. Two great archbishops of the second part of the 19th century (József Kunszt 1851–1866 and Lajos Haynald 1867–1891) founded schools, so Kalocsa kept its importance.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the peasants were working for the archbishop or as navvies. During the counter-revolution of the Hungarian Soviet Republic, 20 people were hanged in the main street of the town.
During World War II, the Germans required the deportation of all the Jewish people in the summer of 1944. Most of them were murdered in the Nazi concentration camps. Some survivors returned after the end of the war, but the Jewish community never thrived again. Most Jews left for good. Communist authorities converted the synagogue into a public library. Changes in government in the late 20th century made people more willing to acknowledge this tragic history. In June 2009 the city council organized two days of events about the Jews of Kalocsa to celebrate their deportation.
In the 1950s the communist regime deprived the town of being subsidized by the state because of the archbishopric. The industrial development of the town started at the end of the 1960s. It resulted in changes in the lives of its residents and people in surrounding villages. Today Kalocsa is considered a picturesque small town, most of whose residents work there or on nearby lands.
Main sights
One of the main attractions is the Holy Trinity Square (Szentháromság tér), named after the Holy Trinity column, which is standing next to the Cathedral. The column was made by Lipót Salm in 1786. On the pedestal can be seen St. John of Nepomuk, St. Sebastianus and St. Florian. Opposite the Cathedral is standing the statue of St. Stephen. It was erected by the town to the 950th anniversary of the king's death. Károly Kirchmayer and György Vadász made it. Behind this statue can be seen the War Memorial for the heroes of the World War I, a bronze statue, which is one of the works of Ferenc Sidló. The fourth statue of the square depicts Ferenc Liszt, the great Hungarian composer, who visited the town several times and Lajos Haynald archbishop.
Another attraction of the town is the high building of the Archbishops Cathedral standing in the middle of the Holy Trinity Square. The present church is the fourth built here. The first was built during the reign of King Stephen in the first decade of the 11th century by Asztrik. He was the first person who called himself archbishop in Kalocsa. He was also the one who brought the Holy Crown from Rome. This was the crown with which Hungary the Kingdom and the Hungarian nation was born. The second church was erected in the beginning of the 13th century and was destroyed by the Tatars. We are familiar with two of this church's stone carvings. One is a grave-stone cherishing the memory of the stonemason, Martinus Ravegu, and the other is a red marble king-head significant even in its fractions, being the most remarkable piece of sculpture from the age of the Árpáds (897–1301). The second church was rebuilt in Romanesque style during the reign of Louis the Great and burnt down in 1602 by the Protestant Hungarian Haiducks. That was the third. In the middle of the century the Turkish traveller, Evlia Tshelebi saw the remains, the inner walls of which were decorated with "beautiful colour paintings". The foundation of the present Italian-baroque style Cathedral was designed by the archbishop Imre Csáky. The foundation stone was laid by Gábor Patachich, also an archbishop, in 1735. The monument itself was designed by András Mayerhoffer. The two high towers of the Cathedral were burnt down because of stroke of lightning at the end of the 17th century. Because the changes of the 19th century made Gyula Városy archbishop (1905–1910) restore the church. It was made by two famous Hungarian architects, Ernő Foerk and Gyula Petrovácz. They built the crypt, too.
The two towers can be seen even from a great distance. Between them there is a connecting bridge on which are three statues: St Peter and Paul (1755) and in the middle Virgin Maria (János Hartmann, 1881). Under it there is a tympanum held by two Ionic columns. In the tympanum we can see a relief by József Andrejka. Its title is: Patrona Hungariae. On the south side of the Cathedral there is a relief of Asztrik, made by Jenő Bory, 1938. Being inside the Cathedral the visitor is fascinated by the golden, pink and white colours. The ceiling is decorated with stuccoes. This is one of the most beautiful decorations in Hungary. Setting out from the organ the visitor can see St Jeromos (he lived in the desert and translated the Holy Bible to Latin), St Ágoston (was a bishop, he is holding a burning heart in his hand), St Ambrus and St Gergely ( was a pope, he governed the church at the end of the ancient times). There is also a fresco about a triumphal cart, which is the symbol of the church and which is pulled by the badges of the four evangelists. The main altar was painted by Lipót Kupelweiser from Vienna in 1857. It depicts the Ascension of Virgin Mary. At the pillars of the triumphal arch there are two statues: St Stephen and St Ladislaus. The relief under Stephen depicts: Asztrik brings the crown to Stephen. The other relief under Ladislaus depicts: the foundation of the Chapter of Bács-County. The reliefs of the pedestal were carved by Miklós Izsó in 1864. The pulpit was made in 1752 in baroque style. At the top of it there is Jesus Christ. Around him the 4 evangelists can be seen and next to them there are their symbols (angle, lion, horn and eagle). The stained glass windows were made by Imre Zsellér and depict Hungarian saints: St Stephen with his coronation, St Ladislaus who brings water to the ground from rocks, St Margaret, St Elizabeth who gives alms to the poor people, St Imre, St Gellért who preaches the word of God, St John Kapisztrán who leads the Hungarian army against the Turkish troops and also can be seen St Adalbert who christened Stephen. One of the ornaments of the Cathedral is the organ which was built by the Angster Company from Pécs between 1876 and 1877. Even Ferenc Liszt played this organ. It has got 4668 pipes, 64 variations and 1 pedal. There are side-altars, too. Aching Virgin's altar with the body of a martyr, called St Pius. The body was taken to Kalocsa by Gábor Patachich's order from Roman catacombs on 11 July 1741. Next to the altar is the Guardian Angel's who takes a child under his/her wing because that little creature is fighting against snakes. There are also St Ferenc of Assis as well as St Peter's and Paul's altars. The last two altars show St John of Nepomuk who kept the confessions in secret in front of the Czech king and Stephen I can be seen when he educates his son.
To the rear of the Cathedral there is the Archbishop's Treasury. The archbishop's treasury of the rich Middle Ages was destroyed at the same time as the church. As it is true in general concerning the relics of the Hungarian art, it is valid in this case too: the catastrophes of history unsparingly annihilated our finest valuables. After the Turks were expelled from Hungary the Baroque style art regenerates the country, this in Kalocsa as well. Therefore, the bulk of the articles displayed are the product of the 18th and 19th century and only a very few works of art are from earlier times, as messengers of the former riches of the Hungarian Middle Ages and the Renaissance era.
The Archbishop's Palace
There was a castle in the 14th century where the present building is now standing. It is a baroque-style monument, which was built in the 1760s. It stands to the north of the Cathedral. In the Palace the most visited premises are the Ceremonial Hall and the Archbishop's Library. In the Ceremonial Hall there are astronomical gadgets and maps from the Middle Ages. Here can be seen the first certified replica of the Hungarian Holy Crown with the sceptre and the orb. The frescoes in the Ceremonial Hall and on the ceiling of its chapel were done by Franz Anton Maulbertsch in 1783–84.