The Medieval Cathedral and the Fortress Church

    Unfortunately, the exact form of the former building of the medieval cathedral and the details of its construction are not known. Based on the results of the research so far, it seems that the first Romanesque-style cathedral was already standing at the time of the death of the founder Saint Ladislaus, although it has not yet been fully completed. From a formal point of view, it may have been a three-aisled church with a basilica layout. Its towers were built later, at the turn of the 12th and 13th century, and their style already pointed in the direction of Gothic. Following the reocnstruction in the 14th century, the whole church took Gothic forms. After the Protestant Tamás Varkocs took over Oradea in 1557, the condition of the empty cathedral deteriorated so much that it was demolished by Gábor Bethlen in 1614.

The cathedral, steeped in a glorious past, was not only a popular place of pilgrimage, but also one of the favoured burial places of the royal dynasties of Hungary. At the feet of Saint Ladislaus, Queen Beatrix, the second wife of King Charles Robert of Hungary; Mary, daughter of King Louis the Great and the first queen regnant of Hungary; and her husband, Sigismund of Luxembourg, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia and Hungary, the most influential ruler of fifteenth-century Europe, found their final resting place.

    No connection can be established between the fortress church seen today and the medieval cathedral. The current fortress church was built around 1775 and burned down in 1836. Bishop Ferenc Lajcsák rebuilt the rather dilapidated building, which was later used by the military units stationed in the fortress as an ammunition warehouse. It was used as a warehouse between 1945 and 1989, but was restored in 1991. Today, it is the parish of the Slovak Roman-Catholic community in Oradea.