Travel guide - Great Moravian Empire (833 - 906) - accommodation in hotels and apartments

770 - 960 The "Roman" Emperor Charlemagne annexed Bavaria, uprooted the Avar dominion and established East Mark (Austria). Frankish missions entered west Slovakia and Moravia. The first church was established in Nitra by Prince Pribina, a protagonist of Frankish influence. He was driven out by Moravian Prince Mojmir who annexed his Principality. East Frankish king Luis the German appointed Pribina the Prince of a part of Pannonia, inhabited by Slavonic population. He deposed Mojmir and appointed his nephew Rastislav the Prince of Moravia.
Rastislav asked in Roma for priests but obtained no answer. Then asked in Constantinopolis. Two missionaries, brothers Constantin and Methodius were sent. They knew the language of southern Slaves and invented a new alphabet for it. They translated the most important liturgical texts. They arrived to Moravia in 863 and founded a school for priests there.
They were denounced to the pope. They had to travel to Rome and defend there their Slavonic liturgy. Constantin (Cyril) died in Rome. Methodius was appointed Arcibishop of Pannonia and Great Moravia. However, he was captured by Bavarians and released only after interventions of the Pope and new Moravian Prince Svatopluk, who immediately started to christianize and annex the neighbouring Slavonic territories (Cracow region, Silesia, Bohemia, Lusatania, Pannonia). Svatopluk sent Methodius to Rome to ask for direct protection independent of the Frankish Empire. The pope agreed and sent Svatopluk a letter "Industrie tue". After Methodius died in 885 no new arcibishop was immediately appointed and the new Pope demanded abolition of Slavonic liturgy. After the pupils of Methodius were expelled from the country in 886 a high-rank papal delegation failed to find suitable candidates for higher church posts. New frankish attacks followed soon as well as ones of Magyars, who invaded Pannonia. After Svatopluk died in 894 the Czech princes offered their submission to Franks. Svatopluk's sons quarreled over whether the country should submit to Franks or defend its independence. In 899 another papal delegation arrived and appointed an archibishop and bishops but it was too late. Franks and Moravians denounced each other to the Pope for the use of Magyar mercenaries in their permanent wars. The third (Magyars) won. The Great Moravia ceased to exist in 906 and Bavarians lost the battle of Bratislava in 907. This enabled Magyars to attack various parts of Europe (sometimes as mercenaries) before they were heavily beaten near Augsburg in 955 by Otto I.
The policy of direct agreement with Rome avoiding the dependence on the East Frankish Empire was successfully applied by many Hungarian and Polish kings thanks to early establishment of arcibishopric in their countries which remained a dream of Czech dukes and kings from ruling Premyslid dynasty. After the collapse of Slavonic mission in Moravia Slavonic culture spread to Bulgaria and Russia, where the original Cyrilic script has been further developed and is presently used by more than 200 millions of people.