Chapter Hill (Káptalan-domb), the oldest part of the city, is criss-crossed with quiet cobbled streets and tight alleyways and dominated by the Basilica, with foundations dating back to the 11th century. Over the ensuing centuries the religious centre of Győr gained an amalgam of styles: Romanesque apses, a neoclassical facade, and a Gothic chapel riding piggyback on the south side. The baroque, dark interior, with red-marble accents – including stunning frescoes by Franz Anton Maulbertsch, the main altar, the bishop’s throne and the pews hewn from Dalmatian oak – dates from the 17th and 18th centuries.
The real highlight here is the Herm of László, an incredible and priceless goldwork dating from the early 15th century. Housed in the Gothic Héderváry Chapel, the herm is a bust reliquary of one of Hungary’s earliest king-saints (r 1077–95). On 27 June it is taken from its resting place and paraded around the city.
If you’re looking for miracles, move to the north aisle and the Weeping Icon of Mary, an altarpiece brought from Galway by the Irish Bishop of Clonfert in 1649, who had been sent packing by Oliver Cromwell. Some 40 years later – on St Patrick’s Day no less – it began to cry tears of blood and is still a pilgrimage site today.
The Basilica also features the tomb of Bishop Vilmos Apor, shot by the Soviet ‘liberators’ in 1945 for trying to protect local women and girls from rape, and beatified by the Pope in 1997.
