Last reviewed 22 October 2026 · A three-minute read · 100 BC–1998
Esztergomi Jaras centres on the hill below Esztergom's basilica, where Szent István tér and its Dark Gate tunnel gather centuries of change: Roman settlement, medieval church, Ottoman siege, archbishops' burials, a 1956 killing, and a factory's long tenancy in a canons' row.
The short answer
Szent István tér lies below Esztergom's basilica hill, beside the Dark Gate tunnel that Archbishop Rudnay had cut through the hillside in 1824. On 26 October 1956 a Soviet tank fired on a bus of protesters near that tunnel, killing fourteen people. The square itself took its present name in 1930, after King Stephen I.
The main entrance of the Basilica in Esztergom — 2006 · fabiolah · CC BY 3.0
1824 to 1956
A tunnel called the Dark Gate turns violent
On Szent István tér, below Esztergom's castle hill, a tunnel called the Dark Gate runs about 230 feet north of where you stand. Archbishop Alexander Rudnay ordered it built in 1824, two years after work began on the great basilica above it. Workers cut the passage through the hillside to link the priests' houses with the seminary, and since there was no lighting inside, people started calling it the Dark Gate. A Latin inscription over its south entrance still names Rudnay and the year 1824. Beside the tunnel, a wine cellar big enough to hold 3,700 square meters of barrels opened into the hillside, where the archdiocese kept its wine.
The tunnel's quiet history turned violent in 1956. On October 26, during Hungary's uprising against Soviet rule, a Soviet T-34 tank fired into a bus near the Dark Gate. The bus was headed for the seminary, which Russian forces were using as a military post at the time. Fourteen people died in the attack.
The square and tunnel sit at the foot of Esztergom Basilica, Hungary's largest church and the seat of the Archdiocese of Esztergom-Budapest. Just uphill, Esztergom Castle holds the ruins of the fortress where Hungary's kings once lived. The Dark Gate was fully restored by 2006, in time for the basilica's 150th anniversary, and today cars can still pass through it, one way, toward the old town center.
Before 1180 and the centuries after
Fire and gunpowder destroy churches on this hill
Long before Rudnay's tunnel, a church already stood on this hill. Saint Stephen of Hungary, the country's first king, built it to honor Saint Adalbert. In 1180, that church burned down. Archbishop Béla had it repaired afterward, and the hill kept its place as the center of Hungarian Christianity.
The hilltop church was not the last to suffer here. In 1594, during the Ottoman siege of Esztergom, gunpowder stored inside the medieval cathedral exploded. The blast destroyed the building. Only the Bakócz Chapel, finished in 1511, survived. Its stones were later taken apart and rebuilt inside the basilica you see today, piece by piece.
The 1594 siege killed more than a church. Down the hill, in the Víziváros quarter about a quarter mile southwest, the poet Bálint Balassa died fighting at the walls that same year. He is remembered as the first Hungarian poet to earn a European reputation, and his memorial stands near this square today.
1930 to 1950
The square is renamed for a king, then for peace
The square itself did not always carry this name. In 1930, its western end, facing the basilica, was renamed Szent István tér, after King Stephen, who tradition says was born, baptized, and crowned at Esztergom. Twenty years later, in 1950, Hungary's communist government renamed the whole square Béke tér, meaning Peace Square. After communism fell, the two halves took back the name Szent István tér. A smaller Béke tér remains nearby.
26 October 1956, in full
A Soviet tank fires on a bus of protesters
The tank attack at the Dark Gate was part of a wider uprising that reached this square. Protesters were trying to walk to the seminary, then held by Soviet troops, to read them the revolution's sixteen demands. A Soviet T-34 tank, stationed inside the tunnel, opened fire on their bus instead.
2006 to now
Statues and a festival now fill the square
By 2006, workers had finished restoring the Dark Gate, in time for the basilica's 150th anniversary. New lighting was added to both the tunnel and the basilica above it.
Around the square, statues mark its long memory. One shows Saint Stephen on horseback, another King Saint Ladislaus, raised in 1771. A third honors Vitéz János, a 15th-century archbishop and scholar. Nearby stands a memorial to József Mindszenty, the cardinal who resisted both Nazi and communist rule in Hungary and spent years as a prisoner and later a refugee inside the American embassy in Budapest.
Today the square still draws crowds for reasons less grim than 1956. In August 2026, it hosted the Kaleidoszkóp Hegy Fesztivál, a cultural festival with music and performances, filling the same ground where a tank once stood.
Szent István tér still sits below the basilica and the Dark Gate, where centuries of fire, siege, and uprising have each left their mark on this one small square.
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Tamás Bakócz, the cardinal who commissioned the Renaissance chapel that survived the 1594 explosion, was buried in the basilica after his death in 1521.
During the 1594 Ottoman siege, stored gunpowder exploded inside the medieval cathedral on Castle Hill, destroying it and leaving only the Bakócz Chapel standing.
To clear ground for the new basilica, builders carted away the middle of Várhegy, taking the medieval St Adalbert cathedral and much of the castle walls with it.
Archbishop Sándor Rudnay wanted a unified square before his new basilica, and in 1828 the canons' row buildings were built here to designs by Pál Kühnel.
The western end of the square, once called Bazilika tér, was renamed Szent István tér in 1930 for the king tradition says was born and crowned in Esztergom.
The southern canons' row on the square held a spectacle-frame factory into the late 1950s, then the Medicor company, before the town bought the building in 1998 for 10 million forints.
On 26 October 1956 a Soviet T-34 tank, stationed inside the Dark Gate tunnel, fired on a bus carrying unarmed protesters who were trying to reach soldiers holding the nearby seminary. Fourteen people died in the attack.
What was here before the basilica was built?
A church built by Saint Stephen of Hungary in honour of Saint Adalbert stood on the hill, burning down in 1180 and later being repaired by Archbishop Béla. That medieval cathedral was itself destroyed in 1594 when stored gunpowder exploded during the Ottoman siege, leaving only the Bakócz Chapel standing.
Why is it called the Dark Gate?
Archbishop Alexander Rudnay ordered the tunnel built in 1824 to link the priests' houses with the seminary, cutting it through the hillside with no lighting inside, which is why people began calling it the Dark Gate. A Latin inscription over its south entrance still names Rudnay and the year.
Why is the square called Szent István tér?
The western end of the square was renamed Szent István tér in 1930, honouring King Stephen I, who tradition holds was born, baptised and crowned at Esztergom. The name was briefly replaced by Béke tér under communist rule in 1950 before being restored after communism fell.
What survived the 1594 destruction of the cathedral?
Only the Bakócz Chapel, completed in 1511, survived the gunpowder explosion that destroyed the medieval cathedral in 1594. Its stones were later taken apart and rebuilt piece by piece inside the basilica that stands today.
