Gran

Gran, a royal free-town of Hungary, is situated on the right bank of the Danube, here crossed by a bridge of boats, 25 miles NW. of Pesth, and opposite the mouth of the river Gran (length, 150 miles). The town is the see of the primate of Hungary, and its great domed cathedral (1821–56), on the castle hill, rivals in its magnificent proportions St Peter's at Rome. The palace of the prince-archbishop, who is primate of Hungary, and has a rent roll of £80,000, is the chief of many buildings in connection with the cathedral. The warm mineral springs of Gran have also some fame. Pop. (1890) 9349. Gran was the cradle of Christianity in Hungary; here St Stephen, the first king, was born in 979, and baptised and crowned in 1000. In the next two centuries it became the greatest commercial town in the kingdom; the old name, Istrogranum ('Danube grain-town'), appears now in the Magyar Esztergom, and the Hungarian-Latin Strigonium. Gran's fortunes never recovered from the storming by the Tartars in 1241.