On 25.06.21 we will celebrate 280th anniversary of coronation of Maria Theresa as a Hungarian queen in 1741 in Bratislava, at St. Martin’s Cathedral.
Every year Bratislava reminds the coronation history of Bratislava by Coronations Days. This year the Coronations Days should be on 25 -27.06.21, but the event due to pandemic situation have been postponed to August, but the exact date of the event it is still unclear.
Coronation was always a big festivities in Bratislava. In the morning the emperor started the coronation road from Bratislava castle together with his suite. The first stop was at St. Martin’s Cathedral where a coronation mass took place. After the mass the procession follow to Franciscan church.
Here the new monarch knighted the Knights of Golden Spur chosen from Hungarians nobility. The last stage of coronation event was a coronation celebration.
Why Bratislava was the coronation city of Hungarian kingdom, and not Budapest? In 16th. Century vast part of Hungarian kingdom had been occupied by Ottoman Empire, including also the capital Budapest. Bratislava therefore as the second biggest city of Hungarian kingdom became the capital city and also coronation city. The first coronation took place in Bratislava in 1563 and the last one in 1830. Between these periods in Bratislava had been crowned 11 kings and 8 royal husbands. All the monarchs crowned in Bratislava belongs to ruling Habsburg dynasty.
THE ST. MARTIN's CATHEDRAL
The coronation mass as we have mentioned took place in St. Martin’s cathedral, from 2008 St. Martin’s concathedral. The cathedral is known also under the name – St. Martin’s Dom. The cathedral is one of the biggest churches of Slovakia, the seat of Bratislava’s archbishop and together with Bratislava’s Castle are the “faces” of Bratislava. The first written notice about the cathedral is from 13th century. At first cathedral was a gothic church, in 18th century rebuild to baroque church. The last significant reconstruction is from second half of 19th century, when the cathedral got its neo-gothic look.
The cathedral tower is 85 m high. On the pinnacle of the tower is located golden pillow with size 2 x 2 m, on that lies the copy of Hungarian royal crown. The copy of the crown is 1 m high and has 300kg weight. The tower has two bells – the bigger one name is Wedderin.
