Excavations in the 19^th century

The borders of the building site containing the ruins of the archdeaconry and basilica were settled by the beginning of the 19^th century: The Palace of the Bishop occupying the area up to the remains of the South Arcade and municipal Székesfehérvár covering the territory where the South transept had once stood. Despite the destruction of the previous two and a half centuries, landscaping work during the 19^th century led to exceptional archaeological discoveries. Various pieces of gold jewelry were found on the site of the bishopric during canalization work in 1839. The items undoubtedly originated from royal burial sites, a fact substantiated by the discovery of the undisturbed tombs of a royal couple, along with three additional graves in the area of the South transept in December 1848. On behalf of the city, Lajos Kossuth requested further excavations to be supervised by János Érdy of the National Museum. These excavations were the first to yield expert observations and comprehensive drawings of the area where the church complex had stood. Érdy identified the excavated royal tomb as that of Béla III. and his wife, Anna of Antioch, a postulation supported by researchers of history up to the present day. The finds were transported to the National Museum and the red marble slabs which lined the tomb are now stored in the crypt under the bishop1s cathedral.

During the middle of the 19^th century scientific interest in medieval architecture and archaeology increased; with it research on the Coronation Church and royal burial ground that had once stood in Székesfehérvár. Imre Henszlmann conducted three separate excavations in the area of the church between 1862 and 1882. Examination of the excavated building remains in light of the most important historical sources available at the time assisted archaeologists in determining the three main phases of construction, during the time of Árpád, the Anjou Dynasty, and Matthias Hunyadi. Henszlmann wished to provide a complete architectural history of the church, but the research he conducted involved sites that were not always connected with each other. Therefore, the lack of adequate archaeological observation and recent excavations cast some doubt on some of his postulations. For instance, he estimated the extension of the church on the West side to be far longer and, lacking appropriate knowledge of Gothic-style buttresses, put the origin of the Southwest tower in the time of Béla III. His observations on the sanctuary enlarged by Matthias Corvinus, based on the above excavations, also seem arbitrary. He imagined the building at the time of Saint Stephen to have resembled the style of an ancient Christian basilica, presuming a row of pillars to have existed between the separate naves and considered the towers at each of the four corners of the structure to have been characteristic features. His conclusions concerning the renovation of the church during the age of Árpád were precise, however since we now know more about the stone carvings, that work is now estimated to have taken place in the first half of the 12^th century rather than during the time of Béla III.

Excavations after 1960

hConstruction in the city center of Székesfehérvár during the 1960s also involved the area of the former church and its immediate vicinity. Excavations made as a result of landscaping work were already yielding serious results in 1965. A new Árpád-age chapel was discovered along with the remains of a dividing wall from the same period along the south side of chapel No.1. The work was supervised by Alán Kralovánszky, who from this point onward began a methodical excavation of the church site. His work took him into the garden of the bishop's palace, where archaeological digs had previously not been conducted. It was here that the row of piers in the Northwest arcade of the nave were discovered in 1969. In 1970, Kralovánszky also began to conduct new research on the sites that had been excavated earlier. The most important result of his work included precise observations on the construction of the Romanesque and Gothic choirs, and also the discovery of the tomb of Saint Stephen and the pulpit dating from the Árpád period.

The most recent excavations since the establishment of the garden ruins include some smaller projects in 1988 and some of much larger significance in 1992. Alán Kralovánszky was responsible for the excavation of the entire South transept, including the full length of the South wall and its buttresses, under the road skirting the southern end of the garden ruins, making it possible to completely document the construction process of the church. Finishing the excavation of the Southwest tower initiated by Henszlmann also made it possible to identify it as that of Pipo Ozorai. Subsequent excavations in the area west of the tower yielded additional data on the stages of construction on the Árpád-age structure found on the western end. Further excavation work is expected.