Esztergom County

Esztergom County (Latin: comitatus Stringoniensis, Hungarian: Esztergom (vár)megye, Slovak: Ostrihomský komitát / Ostrihomská stolica / Ostrihomská župa, German: Graner Gespanschaft / Komitat Gran) was an administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary, situated on both sides of the Danube river.

The capital of the county was the Esztergom Castle and the town of Esztergom, then from 1543 onwards, when the territory became part of the Ottoman Empire, the county officials fled to Nagyszombat and Érsekújvár, the latter functioning as a seat (e. g. 1605–1663) and finally since 1714 the previous situation was restored.

A predecessor of the county existed as early as in the 9th century, when Esztergom (Slovak: Ostrihom) was one of the most important castles of Great Moravia.

In 1850 Komárom and Esztergom counties were divided along the Danube: the areas north of the river (along with a small part of Győr County on the north bank and the Szőny suburb of Komárom on the southern bank), including Esztergom's Muzsla Stuhlbezirk ('seat-district'), were combined into a new Komárom county (under the German name Comorn) administered by the Military District of Preßburg; the southern parts of the traditional Komárom and Esztergom counties (the Gran (Esztergom) Land- and Stadtbezirke and Komárom's Kócs and Dotis Stuhlbezirke) were merged to form a new Gran (Esztergom) county administered by the Military District of Pest-Ofen.

After World War II, the Trianon borders were reestablished and Komárom-Esztergom County was recreated again.

Map of Esztergom county in the Kingdom of Hungary (1891)
Map of Esztergom, 1891.
The city of Esztergom in the 19th century
Komárom and Esztergom counties after the Treaty of Trianon. In 1923, the two counties were merged to form Komárom-Esztergom county.
The formation of modern Komárom-Esztergom County. (1) territory assigned from Fejér County to Komárom-Esztergom County in 1950. (2) territory assigned from Veszprém County to Komárom-Esztergom County in 1950.
Ethnic map of Esztergom county according to the data of the 1910 census. Key: red - Hungarians ; pink - Germans ; light green - Slovaks . Coloured dots in a plain rectangle imply the presence of smaller minority populations (generally more than 100 people or 10%). Multicoloured rectangles imply cities and villages with multi-ethnic populations with the order of the stripes following the ethnic composition of the settlement.
Esztergom Castle Hill panorama from Štúrovo