Map - Esztergom

Esztergom (Gran; Solva or Strigonium; Ostrihom, known by alternative names) is a city with county rights in northern Hungary, 46 km northwest of the capital Budapest. It lies in Komárom-Esztergom County, on the right bank of the river Danube, which forms the border with Slovakia there. Esztergom was the capital of Hungary from the 10th until the mid-13th century when King Béla IV of Hungary moved the royal seat to Buda.

Esztergom is the seat of the prímás (see Primate) of the Roman Catholic Church in Hungary, and the former seat of the Constitutional Court of Hungary. The city has a Christian Museum with the largest ecclesiastical collection in Hungary. Its cathedral, Esztergom Basilica, is the largest church in Hungary.

The Roman town was called Solva. The medieval Latin name was Strigonium. The first early medieval mention is "ſtrigonensis [strigonensis] comes" (1079-1080).

The first interpretation of the name was suggested by Antonio Bonfini. He tried to explain it from Istrogranum, "city at the confluence of Ister (the Greek name of the Danube river) and Gran (the Latin name of the river Hron)". This interpretation is still popular. Viktor Récsey attempted to derive the name from Germanic languages. After the conquest of the country by Charlemagne, the Franks should give the name Osterringun to their easternmost castle; as a comparison, a reference is made to the town of Östringen. Pavel Jozef Šafárik tried to explain the name from Slavic ostřehu (locus custodius, munitus). Gyula Pauler suggested a Slavic personal name Stigran without a deeper analysis of its origin.

In 1927, Konrad Schünemann summarized these older views and proposed the origin in a Slavic stem strěg ("custodia", guard). This theory was later extended by Ján Stanislav who also explained the origin of the initial vowel missing in Latin and later Czech sources (Střehom). The introduction of a vowel before the initial consonant group is a regular change in the Hungarian language (Stephan → István, strecha → esztercha), but the initial "O" in later Slavic forms can be explained by an independent change–an incorrect decomposition of the Slavic prepositional form. Both authors noticed the high number of Slavic placenames in the region (Vyšegrad, Pleš, Kokot, Drug, Komárno, Toplica, etc.) and similar Slavic names in other countries (Strzegom, Střehom, Stregowa, etc.). Both authors believed that the stem strěg was a part of the Slavic personal name, but Šimon Ondruš suggests a straightforward etymology. The Proto-Slavic stregti – to watch, to guard, present participle stregom, strägom – a guard post. The later Slavic form was created by an incorrect decomposition as follows: vъ Strägome (in Strägom) → vo Strägome → v Osträgome like Slovak Bdokovce → Obdokovce, Psolovce → Obsolovce.

Lajos Kiss considered the name to be of uncertain origin, potentially derived also from Slavic strgun (a tanner) or Proto-Bulgaric, - a leather armor However, the last theory is sharply criticized by Šimon Ondruš as obsolete and unreliable, because of its dependency on later sources, the high number of Slavic names in the region and missing adoption of the word in the Hungarian language.

Other names of the town are Croatian Ostrogon, Polish Ostrzyhom, Serbian Ostrogon and Estergon (also Turkish), Slovak Ostrihom and Czech Ostřihom (the archaic name is Střehom). The German name is Gran, like the German name of river Garam. Istergom, Esztergom. Ister, the old name of Danube. Gom/hun/ is arch like, gomb/hun/ is (coat button), gömb/hun/ is (sphere).