Abstract This study deals with the history of the carved stone monuments of the royal provostry church founded by St. Stephen in honour of the Virgin Mary in the early 11th century and destroyed in the time following the Ottoman occupation of the city. The epochs of the research (at least of the reception of the stone monuments) are distinguished in the study as follows: 18. century: the period of the final destruction of few remnants of the church, and the beginning of the first interest for stone (mainly for Roman) monuments. In the Bishop's Garden a collection of carved stones containing besides Roman Antiquities also medieval pieces is formed. The first arcgaeological research on the territory of the ruins was made in 1848, as the graves of King Bela III. and of his Queen could be uncovered in an authentic way. In the second half of the 19th century the monuments of Szekesfehervar were studied as witnesses of national splendour. Imre Henszlmann conducts three excavation campaignes in 1864, 1874 and 18...