Legends, stories
Legends Stories
There are many legends associated with Esztergom and its surroundings, which keep the residents of the area and those interested in the history of the area excited to this day.
The forests around Esztergom long ago became the characters of blood-curdling stories on full moon nights.
The air cools down, fog rolls in between the trees and complete silence reigns in the forest. It's time for a bargain between the hunter and the devil! To the hunter who decided to make a deal with the devil to sell his soul for a richer life. All he had to do was to sneak among the trees in the forest on a full moon and spread a snow-white handkerchief on the ground without any wrinkles. At exactly midnight, you have to aim for the moon and hit it with a well-aimed shot, in return three drops of blood fell on the handkerchief. With this, the contract was concluded between the devil and the hunter.
With the help of a handkerchief soaked in the blood of the Moon, the devil always helped the hunter. He no longer cared about loot, money, or his life. For many years, the devil watched the hunter, who was getting more and more prosperous, whom he slowly abandoned due to his poor luck. In the end, he waited for the fulfillment of his destiny, lonely and impoverished. After many years of waiting, the devil appeared and took the insatiable hunter with him.
(János Burány's article about this Esztergom hunting superstition was published in Turisták Lap in 1889. We published it from the article of Dunakanyar researcher Orsolya Spóner on 03-18-2018)
The Esztergom stonemason
A lovely story circulates between the ancient walls of the Esztergom castle. And the story is about the palace itself and the castle chapel, which III. Béla had it built in the 1180s. III. King Béla of Hungary wanted to see a palace on the castle hill commensurate with the size of his empire. In order for this to be realized, he entrusted the work to a French craftsman, Master Pierre. The craftsman started construction, but soon asked the king for an audience, citing financial problems. The king was reluctant to fulfill his request, because several large-scale constructions had taken place in the past period, and the treasury was empty. Magister Pierre stormed the Hungarian court. He left Hungary and returned to France. The Esztergom palace was abandoned and not long after, the king was called to his duty. The king's wife, Margit Capet, remained alone in Esztergom. His thoughts kept straying only to the unfinished palace; until a piece of parchment was blown in front of him by the wind. On the parchment he saw some of the stylistic features of the French craftsman, but somehow it was different. He asked the owner of the blueprint, who was none other than Dénes, master Pierre's construction assistant. Seeing Dénes' talent for art, the queen hired him to finish what the French craftsman had left half a year ago. After the king returned home, the facade of the palace, the round windows and pillared gates stood on the gable. The news of the upcoming palace in Esztergom reached the ears of Master Pierre, who quickly returned to Hungary. When Esztergom saw that the work was going on without him, he became furious and quickly disappeared as he realized that his young assistant had taken over the job. Finally, he was moved to see his image on the capital of the castle chapel. "According to ancient custom, the building must bear the likeness of its master." This is how it happened that on the two column capitals of the castle chapel there are two images carved in stone - Pierre and Dénes - (Az Esztergom stone carver. In.: Gábor Lipták: Regélő Dunántúl., Budapest, Móra Ferenc Könyvkiadó 1964. p. 38-66).
The secret passage
This story is about the love of the beautiful castle princess of Gerencsérvár, Klára Ujlaki, and the dahlia captain of the neighboring Vitány Castle, Imre Héderváry. The castle lady's father, Miklós Ujlaki, wanted to marry her to a German count, but he had no idea that his daughter's heart was already beating for Imre Héderváry. Klára - defying her father's will - escaped under the cover of night to Vitány Castle. When the lord of Gerencsérvár noticed that his daughter had run away, he laid siege to Vitány Castle in anger, but could not get inside. While not a beggar, whose father used to serve in Vitány Castle, he mentioned a secret corridor that opens directly into the castle captain's room. Miklós Újlaki attacked Imre Héderváry through this. He dragged his daughter back to Gerencsérvár and then ordered her to be stoned alive. The masons of the village did not forget the kindness of the castle princess, so they bricked up one corner of the cellar, which also had a window. They secretly fed the castle lady through this window. In the meantime, hope returned to Klára after learning that her beloved was alive. Meanwhile, the captain of Vitány-vár was not idle either. He asked for the help of King Matthias, who saw that the time had come to finally deal with the treacherous lord. The king invited Miklós Ujlaki to Vitány, where he confronted him with his actions. The lord collapsed from the weight of the consequences, regretting his actions. That's when Klára and Imre appeared safe and sound. The story ends with the reconciliation of father and daughter, the reconciliation of the lovers, and last but not least, the reconciliation of King Matthias and Miklós (The secret corridor. In.: Gábor Lipták: Regélő Dunántúl., Budapest, Móra Ferenc Könyvkiadó 1964. pp. 67–100)
The Legend of Devil's Mountain
The story tells about the formation of Ördög Mountain and Ördög Lake in Nagyigmánd. It happened that a farmer from Nagyigmánd, Miklós, had his horse-drawn carriage stolen by the people of Ács. Seeking revenge, he decided to flood Ács with the water of the Danube. He also found a sack that the Devil had previously cursed with bottomlessness. He started shoveling the huge amount of sand into this bottomless bag, then dragged it towards the Ács. But the sack was so heavy that the side tore out. A large amount of sand was released, forming a mountain between Ács and Nagyigmánd. Seeing that his plan had failed, the Devil got angry and sent a storm over the settlements. The rain collected in the amount of soil shoveled by Miklós created a lake. This is how the Nagyigmánd Ordög Mountain and Ordög Lake were created (Irén Talabér – László Pőcze: The legend of the Ordög Mountain. Nagyigmánd, Nagyigmándi Közössékékért Egyesület 2022.).
Vértes-mountain
The origin of the name of Vértes-hegy dates back to the reign of the Hungarian king András I. The German emperor Henrik declared war on Hungary. Their armies, both on land and in the waters of the Danube, were dangerously approaching the interior of the country. The Hungarian king gave the order to burn the lands and to evacuate the population along with their animals, which fell into the path of the German army. Because of this, the German army soon began to starve, and the supply from the Danube did not arrive. The Hungarians used a ruse to direct the approaching force back to German soil. Henrik and his remaining land army were under continuous attack from the Hungarians night after night. When the emperor realized that his situation was hopeless, he made peace with the Hungarian king. András I exercised mercy over the Germans, who rushed back to German soil, losing their heads, leaving their weapons and shields behind. This is why we call this place Vértes-hegy (A Vértes. In.: Dénes Lengyel: Régi magyar mondák. Budapest, Helikon Kiadó, 2019. p. 125 – 127).
The old man of the Mária-well in Tata
According to the story, King Matthias organized a hunt in the forest near Tata. He chose a deer as his victim, but missed his target. The king, fueled by the heat of the hunt, pursued the big game. He unsuccessfully chased the deer until nightfall. The king lost his hunting companions and could not find the way back either. Tired of his wanderings, he fell down next to a thorn bush, thirsty, and then began to pray to the holy virgin. His petition was answered, as the Virgin Mary appeared before him. He led King Matthias to a place where there was a spring. The king of the Hungarians survived the night and then returned to his people. He expressed his gratitude by having a well built in the place of the source, which has been called Mária-kút ever since (Miklós Rohbacher: Tata története. Tata, Engländer C. Könyvnyomdája, 1888. p. 82 – 83).
The legend of the Neptune statue
On the old postcards of Kisbér, a statue that used to stand on the bridge over the waterfall in the English garden appears again and again. This figure was none other than Neptune, the ancient Roman god of waters and seas. Long ago, when Kisbér still belonged to the Batthyány county, there lived in the village a mercenary of enormous strength. One day, this lad was carrying logs on his ox cart when he noticed a berserk carriage speeding towards a nearby dilapidated bridge. The young man knew that if the carriage reached the bridge, its passengers would fall into the flooded stream. The young man was not idle much. Suddenly he jumped in front of the horses, grabbed their bridles and stopped the carriage. As the trouble cleared up, the carriage's passengers - a French lady and the count's children - revealed their identities. After the count also learned about the brave act, he richly rewarded the brave mercenary. And out of gratitude, he immortalized his graceful figure as a statue of the god Neptune and erected it in the English Garden in Kisbér (Pál Hegedüs – György Jaksics: Greetings from Kisbér. Budapest, 2008. p. 18).
The mining spirit
The miners had a specific tradition. Because of this, characteristic beliefs, customs and legends have developed. Ghost stories were not uncommon either. We are sharing such a story: Like every day, on that day as well, in the early hours of the morning, the miners went to work. A group had already descended into the depths, when a white figure appeared in the distance in front of them in the darkness. The miners hurried back to the shaft in fear and told the gunner that there was probably a ghost running amok in the mine. The gunner also went after the swaying white figure, but his lamp did not illuminate him well, and when he spoke or approached him, he always moved further away. The gunner asked a young gunner to speak to the chief miner. The chief miner picked up his hunting weapon and hurried down into the mine. Not long after, they found the mining ghost. The chief miner ordered that if he did not stop, he would shoot. The gun went off and the white figure fell silent after a loud scream. The miners ran to the shot dead body, which turned out to be a goat - which had disappeared in the past few days and had entered through an open pit mine (József Seszták: From the biography of a miner from Dorog. In.: Népünk tráðsáðiól. Ed.: Igaz Mária. Budapest, Művelt Nép Könyvkiadó, 1955. p. 97 – 99).