The name Székesfehérvár means "seat of the white castle" or "white castle with the seat" and the city is known by translations of this in other languages (Latin: Alba Regia, German: Stuhlweißenburg, Slovak: Stoličný Belehrad, Serbian: Столни Београд, Stolni Beograd, Croatian: Stolni Biograd, Slovene: Stolni Belograd, Czech: Stoličný Bělehrad, Polish: Białogród Stołeczny or Białogród Królewski, Turkish: İstolni Belgrad). In Hungarian, the city is known colloquially as Fehérvár.
The word szék (meaning "seat" as "throne") is related to its important role in the 1st centuries of the Kingdom of Hungary: székhely means a (royal) residence, center. In accordance of the obligation from the Doctrine of the Holy Crown, the first kings of Hungary were crowned and buried here.
Pre-Hungarian
The place has been inhabited since the 5th century BC. In Roman times the settlements were called Gorsium and Herculia. In about the 5th century AD, Slavic tribes began moving into the region and this place was called Belehrad or Belegrad, being a center during the Great Moravian period. In the Middle Ages its Latin name was Alba Regalis/Alba Regia. The town was an important traffic junction between Lake Balaton and Lake Velencei, several trade routes led from here to the Balkans and Italy, and to Buda and Vienna. (Today, the town is a junction of seven railroad lines.)
Early Hungarian
The Hungarian town was founded in 972 by High Prince Géza on four islands in the moors of the streams Gaja and Sárvíz. He also had a small stone castle built. Székesfehérvár was first mentioned in a document by the Bishopric of Veszprém, 1009, as Alba Civitas.
St. Stephen granted town rights to the settlement, surrounded the town with a plank wall, had a provost and a school built and under his rule the construction of the Székesfehérvár Basilica
