### The castle of Esztergom and the Porta Speciosa, Jób
the castle of Esztergom The castle hill of Esztergom is not only the place where the Roman town, Solva lay, but also it was the residence of the Hungarian principal tribe from the end of the 10th century, where Chief Prince Géza lived and his son, Stephen, was born around 970. The cathedral and palace of the Hungarian archbishop were also built on the castle hill. The royal castle was already built in the 11th century. King Béla III started to build it, but his successors preferred Óbuda, so the palace fell into the hands of the archbishop, first temporarily (1198), then finally (1256). Not even the Tartars could take over this ecclesiastical-royal settlement in 1241-42. The center of the castle is a multi-storey living tower, which was called "the white tower" even in the 16th century, referring to the royal constructions and residence. The tower was divided into two rooms inside by a wall, and it could have been approached from the gates on the first floor. A castle wing and a chapel wing also joined the tower. From the previous one the basement walls and two rooms survived. The tower was connected to the castle chapel through a narrow corridor and a side-chapel. The chapel is the most beautiful relic of Roman style architecture in Hungary. Its relatively small and simple inner space was perfectly arranged. The side walls to the square nave are enlarged by arched sitting niches. In the semi-circular chancel a row of pillars holds the vault. In the north and south of the chapel there is a side-chapel, which is also a French style arrangment. Most of the plastic decorations are capitals with acantus leaves, but some capital with figural decorations and the gates are outstanding. On the northern wall of the chapel the capitals of two side-pillars of the twin niches are decorated with a bearded, Hungarian and a plain-faced head. The gates played a special role in Esztergom: they represent the different variants of Roman style, not mentioning the fact that at the same time with the constructions of the castle the triuphal arch of the cathedral, the Porta Speciosa, is built. All the gates are decorated with pillar arches, but the gates of the chapel were supported by two pairs of richly decorated pillars, and the gates of the palace by two pillars. the triumphal arch of the St Adalbert cathedral of Esztergom (Porta Speciosa) King Stephen ordered the building of this cathedral in the first decades of the 11th century in the honour of St Adalbert. The capitals with acantus leaves suggest that it might be the work of the royal architecture workshop. The constructions of the new church was started by Archbishop Jób, who studied at Paris. The cathedral was totally ruined during the Tartar Invasion, but even its basement walls were destroyed, when they started to build a classicist basilica here in the 19th century. Only fragments survived from its famous Porta Speciosa, which decorate its main facade, although the gate is described and painted in its unharmed condition in the middle of the 18th century.Its original shape is known from these sources. It was an arched gate with pillars, made of red marble. Its gateposts, lintel and tympanum were decorated with figural marble incrustrations. The center of the three-fold gate stood on lions - after the model of North-Italian gates, while the pillars of the two smaller side-parts were held by squatting figures. In the red marble tables - red marble was excavated in the neighbourhood - the clothes of the figures were also carved, but sometimes these were made of a different coloured marble (blue); arms, legs, heads and ribbons with inscriptions were always made of white marble. The carved decorations and representations presuppose a developed painting culture, and they must have been the work of a skillful master. The technique is Byzantine, though it was applied in concert with the local marble-conditions. In Byzantium white, while in Esztergom red marble was decorated with different coloured marble insertions. On the pillars of the gates we can see the representations of the apostles, on the lintel there are the kneeling figures of Béla III and Archbishop Jób (so the gate must have originated from the times preceeding the death of the king, that is before 1196), and in the tympanum we can see the legendary scene: St Stephen offers his country to the Virgin Mary, who is holding her child in the company of St Adalbert. Jób King Béla III's favourite, who might have spent his youth in Byzantium together with the later ruler. It is possible that he was educated in one of the good western schools, and when he returned he became the Bishop of Vác (1181-1183), then the Archbishop of Esztergom (1185-1203). During his years as an archbishop he had a dogmatic dispute with Isaakios, Byzantine emperor in Greek. He had the cathedral of Esztergom rebuilt, presumably after Byzantine patterns, whose triumphal arch, the Porta speciosa, was completed at that time. It survived only in fragments, and in a later illustration; and among the representations on it we can find Archbishop Job. He took the crusader's oath in 1195, but at the request of Béla III he did not leave for the Holy Land. In the fight among Béla's sons he supported Emeric. Later, however, he turned against him. He might have died in 1203. SzK