Bavarian princess, first queen of Hungary, wife of Stephen I and mother of Emeric.
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Sister of the emperor Henry II, Gisela married around the year 1000 the prince Vajk, baptised Stephen, and her marriage sealed Hungary's entry into Latin Christendom. As queen she founded and endowed churches, formed embroidery workshops from which came the coronation mantle preserved in Budapest, and raised her son Emeric, who died before his father. Widowed and pushed from power, she withdrew to Bavaria and the abbey of Niedernburg at Passau, where she became abbess and died. She is venerated in Hungary as in Bavaria.