ALBA REALE, diocese of. - In Hungarian Székesfehérvár, in German Stuhlweissenburg. The city was the residence of the kings of Hungary for 500 years (hence the name), and the place of royal burial until 1543. Stefano I built a basilica there and founded a collegiate chapter, entrusted with safeguarding the Holy Crown. Maria Teresa, on 16 June 1777, erected the bishopric there, a suffragan of Strigonia. The magnificent cathedral of S. Stefano was completed in 1786. A. R. remained under the yoke of the Turks from 1543 to 1681; in 1601 they destroyed the Royal Basilica.
The best-known bishop, even outside Hungary, was Ottokar Prohászka, a great sacred and secular orator, an excellent writer, and an untiring promoter of agrarian reform; he died in Budapest, in the pulpit, on 2 Apr. 1927. Over his tomb, at A. R., grateful Hungary erected a memorial church. The diocese has 390,000 Catholics out of 508,063 inhabitants; 127 parishes, 242 diocesan priests, and 56 regular clergy.