Here is a list of the cities and frontier castles in Royal Hungary, Transylvania, and the occupied lands:
The cities and castles of the Trans-Danubian Region and Upper Hungary—the Hungarian Highland—are listed here. They were either in Habsburg hands or taken by Prince Rákóczi I in the 1630s. Some of them were captured by the Turks, but during this time period the borders were fluid.
Upper Hungary
Castle of Érsekújvár (Nove Zámky)
It was Péter Pázmány who had the archbishop's palace built here in 1620 in order to fight Protestantism. He consecrated its Franciscan church and monastery in 1631. Érsekújvár had a well-fortified and modern castle, and thus was considered a strategic place near the Bohemian border.
Castle of Drégely
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiASKDGvQTU
Drégely became a frontier castle in 1544, and it was the gate to the mining towns of Upper Hungary. This small castle deservedly became as famous as Kőszeg or Szigetvár in the Turkish wars. The fort was in a rather poor condition in 1549 because a lightning bolt exploded its gunpowder storage. It was defended by György Szondy and his one hundred forty-six men in 1552 when Pasha Ali besieged him with twelve to fourteen thousand soldiers. They were able to resist the Turks for only four days, but those few days are legendary in Hungarian history.
Pasha Ali ordered Szondy to surrender the castle, and after his refusal he had the outer palisade set on fire. Szondy had to withdraw into the inner castle, behind old-fashioned stone walls. The pasha had an earthen rampart built and placed his cannons there. After two days of bombardment the castle and its high gate-tower were in ruins. Pasha Ali was not a bloodthirsty man, and he sent in the local priest, Márton, to negotiate. Szondy refused to yield the castle and sent two of his high-born Turkish captives, dressed in expensive clothes, to Ali, along with his two favorite young pages. He asked Ali to give a good education to the lads because he wouldn't surrender the castle alive. He asked for a proper burial for himself, too. Meanwhile, Szondy had all his valuables—clothing and other treasures—piled up on the castle yard and burnt them. Also, he had his horses and captives killed at the same time. Shortly after this the Turks launched the final attack and Szondy was shot twice—first in the knee and then ino the heart. All of his men fought to the end. Upon their victory, Pasha Ali made a laudatory speech over Szondy's body then had him buried decently as agreed. Later the Turks didn't renovate the old castle, but they built a strong palisade in 1575 around the church of the village that could take in 2000 riders. This New-Drégely-Palisade (Újdrégelypalánk) became the base for raids against Upper Hungary. This new castle was taken back by General Pálffy in 1593, and Ferenc Nagy was left in charge of the fort, as vice-general. The place became the target of constant Turkish attacks which were beaten back strongly. Due to the lack of payment, the defenders' number decreased to 10 soldiers by December, 1595. They couldn't protect the surrounding villages so the settlements fell into the Turks' hands. The garrison's number was increased next year, and they withstood the renewed Turkish attacks. The Diet of 1604 ordered the reinforcement and renovation of the castle, but in vain. It was somewhat repaired in 1615, though. Prince Bethlen camped his army next to the castle in 1626 while waiting to fight Wallenstein.
Castle of Fülek (Filakovo)
It had a strategic location, and its famous captains were the Wesselényi and the Bosnyák family members. It was the Bosnyák family's property in 1630. Fülek was the center of Nógrád county, and these decades were its heydays.
The story of a warrior from Fülek castle is worth the telling. His name was Benedek Balogh, and he was the leader of the Hungarian raiders of Fülek. The Hungarian raiders had been constant visitors of the Turkish-occupied lands to the south, near Szeged and on the Great Hungarian Plains during the 1610s and 1620s. Sometimes they posed a threat against the Hungarian cities and villages as well, not just to the spahi-lands. Balogh happened to be from Szeged and knew the Turks very well. When he was informed that a high-ranking Turkish officer would travel to muster the Turkish castles of the area, Balogh and his people ambushed him and cut him down along with his men. Then they dressed in their clothes and entered the Castle of Szeged, showing the guards the officer's credentials. The Bey of Szeged received them and gave them some soldiers to guard them on their way back. When they were far enough from the castle of Szeged, Balogh's men attacked their escort and slaughtered them.
Castle of Esztergom
This ancient Hungarian castle, the old headquarters of Hungarian kings, is located in the Bend of the Danube. It was in the enemy's hands, and the Hungarians had attempted to take it by siege many times. The greatest warrior poet of the period, Bálint Balassi, lost his life in 1594 during the attack against the castle built on the top of formidable cliffs. A so-called bearded cannon's bullet shot off both of his legs. He left behind the most beautiful poems and songs that a noble warrior could write; his songs were known and sung by everybody in the 1630s. The recapture of Esztergom, a great military deed at that time, took place the next year in 1595. Its capture cut the logistic lines of the Turks toward Győr and was an excellent basis for further attacks against Buda. After Esztergom, the nearby castle of Vác, Visegrád, and Zsámbék fell more easily into Christian hands. The news of Esztergom's capture was celebrated throughout Europe; even the Pope held a mass to give thanks for it.
The combined troops of Miklós Pálffy and Alfred Schwarzenberg, along with the army of Vincenzo Gonzaga, Prince of Mantova, laid a long siege against Esztergom. The Italian Claudio Monteverdi was present, entertaining his lord; he played his music piece "Vespro" in the camp. It is thought that here he composed one of his madrigals called "The Contest of Tankred and Klorinda." It is recorded, that during the pauses of the siege, the Turks up in the castle were listening with utter amusement to the music from the camp of the "Italian Pasha of Montava." The eight hundred twenty-three Turkish defenders were fighting heroically but many of them were injured, and they lost their strength because of the long siege. By September they had run out of food and water and had just enough gunpowder for one more day. The forces sent from Buda to help were defeated, and they had no more hope left. They didn't want to endanger their women and children's lives so they surrendered. They were free to take their leave to Buda, unhurt. Esztergom Castle was taken by the Turks in 1605, and the young Wallenstein was present as a junior officer, so he had to have gained first-hand experience with Turks and Hungarians at that time.
Castle of Eger
This castle was blocking the roads towards the mining cities of Upper Hungary as well as the road to Kassa (Kosice), another key city on the east. The 1552 siege of Eger is important not only because of its successful resistance but also because it was the first real triumph over the Turks after the Defeat of Mohács in 1526. It broke the invincible reputation of the Turks and gave tremendous moral encouragement to continue the struggle against the Muslim invaders. It happened during the dual kingship, when Hungary was torn apart by the usurper Habsburgs' claim for the throne. They didn't care that Hungary had an elected national king at that time, King János II, who was also the first Prince of Transylvania. So Eger had frequently changed lords before the Turks arrived, and the castle was in a quite neglected state. Fortunately, the castle was given to the care of István (Stephen) Dobó who, when young, had been the bodyguard of the last Hungarian medieval king, King Lajos II, and fought alongside with him in the Battle of Mohács in 1526.
In the autumn of 1552, Captain István Dobó and his two thousand soldiers were successful in defending the fortress and northern Hungary from the expanding Ottoman Empire. The women of Eger had also been doing a sizable part of the fighting on the walls, and their heroism became legendary, which was all the more humiliating for the Muslims.
In spite of the fact that Captain István Dobó and his soldiers successfully defended the fortress, it was destroyed during the siege so it was essential to completely rebuild it. The reconstruction process of the fortress took place between 1553 and 1596, and Italian artificer officers planned the renovations. Captain Dobó was accused of treason in 1569 because he was told to have conspired with the Turks(!). Emperor Miksa II had him imprisoned for three years. Eger was also the garrison of the most famous Hungarian warrior poet, Bálint Balassi, for a few years beginning in 1578.
The second siege of Eger was a rather shameful one, taking place in 1596. Its captain was Pál Nyáry, and initially he was commanding 500 Hungarian and 500 German soldiers. When the Habsburg general Miksa learned that the sultan's aim was not Vienna but Eger, he sent a last-minute reinforcement of twenty-four hundred more German, Walloon, Czech, and Italian mercenaries. When the Turks besieged the castle, two hundred fifty mostly Italian soldiers sneaked out of the castle during the night and swore fealty to the Turks, changing their religion at the same time. The next day, this caused great confusion among the other mercenaries in the castle, and they started negotiations with the enemy. Soon, everybody left the castle, trusting to the safe conduct of the Turks. Despite that, the Sultan gave order to kill all the foreign mercenaries, except for the Hungarian ones. Instead, the Hungarians were just enslaved and sold accordingly. This was the beginning of the ninety-one-year-long Turkish rule in Eger. The minaret, which is the northernmost minaret in the Ottoman Empire, preserves the memory of this period. During the Turkish occupation Eger became the seat of an elayet which is a Turkish domain consisting of several sanjaks. As elsewhere, churches were converted into mosques, the castle rebuilt, and other structures erected, including public baths. Turkish rule came to an end when Eger was starved into surrender by the Christian army led by Charles Lorraine in 1687, after the castle of Buda had been retaken in 1686. The town was in a very poor state. According to the records there were only four hundred thirteen houses in the area within the town walls which were habitable and most of these were occupied by leftover Turkish families.
City of Körmöcbánya (Kremnica)
This mining town was established in the twelfth century by German settlers invited here from Silesia and Thuringia. It was a world-famous mining city due to the abundant gold ore deposits in the mountains of Körmöcbánya. Starting in 1335 the mint produced golden florins and later the famous "Körmöci ducats," which were used as an international means of payment because of their consistently high purity of gold. It was the most important mint, and later the only one, in the Kingdom of Hungary. It was the capital of the mining towns in central Upper Hungary in the Ring of Fire period. As one of the most important centers of the Protestant Reformation in the country, the town belonged to the Protestant "League of Seven Mining Towns." The town didn't open its gates before Prince Bocskay in 1604, but the next year they sided with him, and later Prince Bethlen was allowed to enter, too. Besides the gold mining, it was famous for its paper factory.
City of Lőcse (Levoca)
The town became the capital of the Association of Szepességi (Zipt) Germans, with a form of self-rule within the Kingdom of Hungary.
Located on an intersection of trade routes between Poland and Hungary, Lőcse became a rich center of commerce. It exported iron, copper, furs, leather, corn, and wine. At the same time the town became an important cultural center. The English humanist Leonard Cox taught around 1520 in a school in Lőcse. The bookseller Brewer from Wittenberg transformed his bookstore into a prolific printing plant that lasted for one hundred fifty years. Also, one of the best-known medieval woodcarvers settled here.
The town kept this cultural and economic status until the end of the sixteenth century, in spite of two damaging fires; one in 1550 which destroyed nearly all of the Gothic architecture, and another in 1599. During this period of prosperity several churches were built, and the town had a school, library, pharmacy, and physicians. There was a printing press as early as 1624. The town was a center of the Protestant Reformation in Northern Hungary. The town started to decline during the anti-Habsburg uprisings in the seventeenth century. A famous printing house was established here in 1630 that remained in use until 1754. Other printing presses were there, too, and many famous people taught and were taught in the city's schools.
Castle and City of Sárospatak
The Reformed College of Sárospatak was founded in 1531 and had become legendary as it was one of the most significant schools of Royal Hungary. The castle was the basis for Prince Bethlen's campaign of 1619. György Rákóczi I established a cannon-casting factory in 1620 where high-quality cannons were produced. It was the time when tens of thousands of German Hutterites (Anabaptists) had to flee Switzerland and immigrated to Hungary and Transylvania. A large group of them settled in Sárospatak and introduced their special pottery-making style. The fort of Sárospatak had traditionally been the dwelling place of the Rákóczi family, and it kept its importance because it is situated halfway between Transylvania and Royal Hungary.
Castle of Murány (Muran)
The castle was built on a cliff of a mountain top and was one of the highest castles of Central Europe. The Habsburgs sold it, and the castle was obtained by György (George) Széchy's father. His wife Mária Homonnay purchased it from his father-in-law and made Murány a center of the Protestant spirit and culture in 1613. György Széchy was facing both Ferdinand II and Prince Bethlen. When he died in 1625, his widow bribed the Viennese court with twenty-two thousand florins so she could become the castle's owner again. She had to swear that she would never yield it to the Transylvanian princes. She held on to her word but her daughter Maria didn't. She sided with Prince György Rákóczi I. At the time of the Ring of Fire, three daughters inherited the castle: Éva, Kata, and Mária. The castle was under the control of Mária Széchy and her sisters' husbands. Mária's husband, István Kun, took an active part in the ownership of the castle and controlled it between 1634-1637, but Mária divorced him and chased him away. Mária, the "Venus of Murány," was an outstanding figure of the period. Her life is detailed in a subsequent chapter among the list of persons found in the 1630s.
Castle and City of Pozsony (Pressburg, Bratislava )
Initially it used to belong to the chief treasurer of Hungary. Its university was established by King Matthias in 1467. Owing to Ottoman advances into Hungarian territory, the city was designated the new capital of Hungary in 1536, becoming part of the Austrian Habsburg monarchy and marking the beginning of a new era. The Turks besieged and damaged Pozsony (Pressburg, Bratislava) but always failed to conquer it. The city became a coronation town and the seat of kings, archbishops (1543), the center of nobility, and all major organizations and offices. The Holy Crown was held there. Between 1536 and 1830, eleven Hungarian kings and queens were crowned in St. Martin's Cathedral. The army of Prince Bethlen took the town in 1620, and he made his peace with the Emperor in this city in 1626. The beginning of the Hungarian baroque period is around 1630, first appearing on territories here, near Austria. The reconstruction of the royal palace of Pozsony began in 1635 in baroque style. The fort guarded the Danube river with its cannons so it was the greatest roadblock before Vienna. Vienna could be reached in 1683 by the Ottoman Empire because Pozsony was taken by the rebel Baron Imre Thököly who let the Turks pass.
Castle of Nógrád
It was a northern frontier castle that used to be the center of a county. Its defenders ran away after 1544 so Hussein, Bey of Esztergom, and Muhamed, Pasha of Buda, took the empty castle easily.
It was only fifty years later, in 1594, that the army of Miklós Pálffy and Christopher Tiefenbach occupied it. Prince Bocskay—with Turkish aid—took it from the Habsburgs in 1605, but it had to be returned according to the Peace of Vienna. Prince Bethlen also took it in 1619 but a few years later he had to give it back to the emperor. It was handed over to the Turkish-Transylvanian troops in 1663 by Miklós Nadányi. It had been in the Turks' hands for only twenty-two years when a lightning bolt struck the gunpowder stores and exploded the castle: Bey Csonka set the rest of the fort on fire and abandoned it. Later he converted to Catholicism and he received great lands from Emperor Leopold I for handing over Nógrád castle.
City of Kassa (Kosice, Kaschau)
It was the eastern key city of Upper Hungary. Prince Bethlen took it in 1619, with the help of György Rákóczi, his strongest supporter. Here was held Bethlen's wedding, and he issued his proclamations from here. It was the town of the princes in the seventeenth century. When the city was taken by Rakoczi for Prince Bethlen, three Jesuits (István Pongrátz, Menyhért Grodecz and Márk Kőrösi) were murdered in spite of the promise made that they could leave freely. Allegedly, Péter Alvinczi, the Reformed preacher of the city had demanded their heads along with the death of all the Catholics of Kassa. Alvinczi was the greatest Reformed preacher and the legendary enemy of Archibishop Péter Pázmány. One of the executed priests happened to be Pázmány’s dear friend. The savage Hajdu soldiers tortured the Jesuits to find out where their gold was and who might have been members of a Catholic conspiracy. After two days of starving them they were offered some raw liver to eat before their execution, but being a Friday, they couldn't accept the food. Two of them were beheaded, the third was thought to be dead and thrown into the cesspit where he died twenty hours later. Some circumstances and motives are not clear but the murders very well could have happened with the twenty-three-year-old Rákóczi's and Prince Bethlen's knowledge, and this raises questions concerning the famous religious freedom of Transylvania (when Catholics were concerned). Half a year later the peace talks between Prince Bethlen and Palatine Zsigmond Pálffy were taking place in the same house where the martyrs had been executed. Upon reaching an agreement they held a great feast and Prince Bethlen asked the wife of the Palatine, Katalin Pálffy for a dance. She was willing to dance only under the condition that the martyred priests could get a decent burial. It was grudgingly agreed, provided the burial would happen at night.
We know that Bethlen made further compensations some years later when he wed Catherine of Brandenburg who had demanded it. The situation must have improved during György Rákoczi's rule because he allowed the existence of a Jesuit mission in Kassa from 1630 on. We know that this Jesuit office in Kassa was led between 1632-34 by Dániel Vásárhelyi.
The victims' corpses finally were carried to a nunnery of Poor Claires in Nagyszombat where Maria Forgach, the daughter of the Palatine, was the Abbess in 1635.
Later in 1905 the martyrs were canonized by the Catholic church as the Martyrs of Kassa. Their day in the Catholic calendar is September 7, when they were killed.
Castle of Tokaj
This castle guarded the most important and world-famous wine region of the country. It was also a junction of trade routes coming from the eastern part of Royal Hungary and Transylvania. The other, similarly significant, crossing place over the Tisza river was only at the Turkish-owned Szolnok. The castle on Tokaj hill was the witness to the defeat of the Habsburg army in 1630 by the Transylvanians and their Hajdu soldiers.
The fort was in a very poor condition although the Diet of Pozsony had issued several orders for its renovation. It was said to be "not good enough for a pigstry, if it wasn't surrounded by water one could easily ride straight into the middle of it through its gentle slopes."
Its captain was Miklós Abaffy who sided with Prince Bethlen, aiding him with soldiers. Yet, it was again in Habsburg hands in 1630 as we can see it on a drawing made by Johann Ledentu, military engineer, who was visiting the place at that time. The city of Tokaj was an agricultural settlement and according to a list from 1640 seventy-three peasant families lived in it, including their judge, and there were an additional twenty-two stately homes with sixteen noble families in them. Only six people served as ferry-men at the important military and trade crossing of the Tisza river. The castle fell into Prince György Rakoczi I's hands after a short siege in 1644, and he was allowed to keep it according to the Peace of Linz.
City of Besztercebánya (Banská Bystrica, Neusohl)
One of the most famous mining towns of the Carpathian Basin was destroyed by the Mongols in 1241 but soon the king had German miners from Thuringia settled there. Later it was the city where the Diet elected Prince Bethlen to be King of Hungary. The copper mines around the town were rented by the Fugger banker family. The city was renowned for its rich gold, silver, copper, mercury, and lead mines.
City of Selmecbánya (Banská Štiavnica, Schemnitz)
This mining town presently is a World Heritage site. The mining of silver and copper had been more significant than the gold mines. Besides the Hungarian miners there were miners coming from Flanders and Bavaria. It was the first place in Europe where gunpowder was used for mining, in 1627.
The relationship between the town and Prince Bethlen was remarkably good. The city also kept very good relations with the Palatine of Royal Hungary, György Thurzó. It was due to the friendship between the chief notary public of the city, Abraham Unverzagt, and the Palatine's confidential man called Muller, who was the aristocrat's secretary. Thanks to this friendship, Palatine Thurzó helped protect the country roads around the city against robbers. At the same time, Prince Bethlen confirmed the city's privileges in his letters of 1621. The city received a confirmation from King Ferdinand II the same year—the emperor praised the city as a loyal mining town and gave them the religious freedom to practice their Evangelical [i,e., Lutheran] faith. The letter was also signed by István Pálffy, Miklós Pálffy, and Péter Koháry, faithful Hungarian aristocrats of Ferdinand II. The privileges were also confirmed and in addition to this, the king and emperor granted the mining towns' citizens the right to be called Reichsmitglied, a rank of the Empire. The contest for the mining towns' loyalty was obvious. After Ferdinand's letter, Bethlen was quick to issue a document for the town to save them from any Transylvanian military unit that should happen to wander near. A bit later he gave a letter of safe conduct for the envoys of Selmecbánya. The city balanced itself well between these powers but in 1648 it suffered from anti-Protestantism.
****
Trans-Danubian Region
Castle of Sárvár
The Turks laid an unsuccessful siege on the castle in 1532. Three years later the castle and the city became the property of the Nádasdy family. It was Thomas Nádasdy, an educated “Renaissance man” who turned the place into one of the most sophisticated cultural centers of Royal Hungary. He established a school in 1534 and a printing house in 1537 and assigned János Sylvester to lead them. Sylvester was the first in Hungary who translated the New Testament into the Hungarian language. He printed it as well, in 1541, so it became the first book printed in Hungarian. Sebestyén Tinódi Lantos, a 16th-century Hungarian lyricist, epic poet, political historian, and minstrel, died here in 1556.
The most famous lord of Sárvár was Ferenc Nádasdy II, the famous “Black Bey.” Ferenc helped conquer the castles of Esztergom, Waitzen, Visegrád, Székesfehérvár, and, years later, Győr. During his long period of military service, Count Nádasdy was known for great courage in battle. His wife was the infamous Erzsébet (Elizabeth) Báthory who allegedly committed terrible crimes at the Castle of Csejthe, though some say the charges against her had been fabricated in order to get the Nádasdy-Báthory property for the Emperor. It is strange that Ferenc Nádasdy died of a mysterious and sudden illness in the middle of a battle. Ferenc's mysterious death benefitted Emperor Matthias II, who sought to acquire the extensive territories produced by the Báthory-Nádasdy marriage. After the death of Elizabeth, the diminished possessions of her estate were divided among her four children. Later, Emperor Matthias accused the Báthory-Nádasdy children of treason based on the crimes committed by their mother. All land formerly belonging to the Nádasdy family, in addition to the new lands that had been accumulated from their political family, became available to the Hungarian crown. The descendants of Ferenc and Elizabeth were banished from Hungary and went to Poland. Although some returned to Hungary after 1640, that was the end of the noble status of the Báthory-Nádasdy family in Hungary.
By the mid-seventeenth century vast property piled up in Sárvár castle, ruled then by Ferenc Nádasdy III, grandson of Ferenc Nádasdy II. He was the one who built the main hall of the castle, one of the most beautiful hall of the age. Ferenc got involved in the Wesselényi conspiracy against the king and was beheaded in 1671. His castle was given to the Draskovich family.
Castle of Kanizsa
This famous castle was built at the entrance gate of the Trans-Danubian region. This strategically important location became the target of fierce fighting.
The most renowned Hungarian castle captain, György Thury, was its leader between 1567-1571. Thury was the greatest hero of the Turk wars, defending his castles with very few soldiers and winning battles and sieges in the most hopeless situations. He was also a great duelist: we know of six hundred noted duels against Turkish warriors who sought him out from places as remote as Persia. He also led countless raids against the Trans-Danubian Turkish castles; the only successful strategy to keep the Frontier against the overwhelming enemy was the series of ceaseless and bold attacks from winter to summer.
During the Fifteen Year War the Turks attacked the southern Trans-Danubian region in 1600 and the Turks were able to raid up to and right into the Austrian lands. The Habsburgs hadn't sent reinforcements to the castle so the few defenders, led by Farkas Bakó, set the castle on fire and abandoned it. So that was how the castle of Kanizsa was taken by the enemy.
Unlike the Habsburgs, the Turks came to realize the strategic value of the castle and made it a center of their elayet under the leadership of Pasha Murat. He built further fortifications, and he and his three thousand eight hundred and twenty-five soldiers successfully beat back the attacking Hungarians.
There were frontier castles opposing Kanizsa: their leaders were members of the Batthyány family from 1633 to 1659 (Adam Batthyany 1633-1637). Pál Nádasdy was also a captain between 1627-1633 in a castle near Kanizsa. These smaller castles had to be maintained by the free labor of the surrounding villages. While the Hungarian captains tried to persuade the peasants to come and work, the Turks threatened them not to do so. Many times the Hungarian frontier warriors had to herd the peasants by force to work on the fortifications.
Castle of Komár
This was a smaller castle near Kanizsa. The Turks attacked it at night, four days before Christmas,1637. There were nearly one thousand attackers, and they destroyed a twenty-five-step-long section of the fence of the outer castle. The Turks could approach the wall because the moat froze over. They attacked the wooden palisade, next to the beerhouse at the mill, three times during the night and tried to cut through the gate. They finally managed to cut through the palisade but were beaten back.
The castle remained in a very poor condition, though István Bessenyei, its captain, had the gate mended. A whole section of the palisade fell into the moat in 1645, and it required very hard work to restore it with earthwork. The enemy attacked the castle of Komár again in August, 1651. From dawn to afternoon, they destroyed the gates and the bastions with howitzers. The water of the moat was diverted. Because of the mill and other noises the defenders couldn't hear each other's words so the Turks were able to make a surprise attack. Fortunately, the warriors led by Captain László Pethő stopped them but many buildings were burned down along with the settlement around the castle.
Castle of Zalavár
After the loss of Kanizsa castle (1600), Zalavár's importance increased. In 1605, Prince Bocskay took possession of Zalavár and all other castles in Zala county, except Sümeg castle. A report of 1625 declared that no castle was more neglected and in poorer condition than Zalavár castle. It must have been because of the lack of supply that the guards of the castle began to rob the villages. István Sárkány (Dragon), captain of the neighboring Komár castle, wrote: "They are stealing the cattle of poor people, robbing them, setting their houses on fire, holding them up on the roads to such an extent that a poor man cannot travel peacefully, undisturbed…"
Zalavár castle's role was to guard the crossing place at Lake Balaton and at Hídvég; they had to defend this passage because it was the only connection for Komár castle with the country behind the war-zone. The chain of these smaller castles relied on each other and the defenders knew every bit of the land that they were guarding. Still, the king sinfully neglected them. Without the warriors inside and the villagers and local aristocrats, the system would have fallen apart at once. We can read the complaint of András Bogács, captain of Zalavár castle, after 1620: "…the castle is in ruins, in spite of the constant Turkish threat, and there is not enough food nor soldiers." A few years later Captain István Svatics describes a very similar situation. Pál Sibrik, vice-general of Hungarian forces in Royal Hungary, asked that one hundred German soldiers be sent to Zalavár castle in 1639. He also complained about Captain Svatics' long absence from the castle, saying "…that man didn't sit there more than two weeks a year but instead of guarding his post, was always riding astray…he doesn't deserve his office."
Yet, Svatics was able to beat the Turks back from Zalavár castle successfully in 1639.
Castle of Szentgyörgyvár (Saint George-Castle)
It was part of the chain of castles opposite Kanizs castle. Its captain was György Topos in 1629. There were many attacks and sieges in his time, with the Turks feverishly attacking the ford at Mánd. The most serious attack happened during the service of Captain István Török (Turk) in 1643 when the Turks of Babócsa castle arrived to destroy the small fort he had built at the ford of Mánd. After destroying it, the larger part of their army remained there, but a unit of six to seven hundred Turks came to Szentgyörgy castle with their war flags and attacked the bridge of the castle. After an hour-long fight with the defenders, they withdrew. The defenders lost three soldiers, three children, and a woman in the fight. In addition to the continuous Turkish attacks, through the following years disease was also decimating the castle's population.
Szentgrót castle
After Kanizsa's loss, Szentgrót castle became the most important part of the chain of castles defending the valley of the River Zala. It was placed directly under the court's command. Despite this, members of the Hagymási family remained as captains of Szentgrót castle, and they maintained it better than most of this era's castles. The Turks tried to attack the castle many times during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries but could never occupy it, and it had never had a serious siege.
Castle of Zalabér
According to the law, the noble county and community was obliged to maintain this castle through the Treasury of Court. Zalabér's captain was nominated from the Ányos family in 1621. There were only ten soldiers and a corporal in the castle to defend it at that time. Due to the constant Turkish raids they increased their number to twenty in 1640. The Turkish pillagers enslaved or killed thirty-three of its villagers between 1630 and 1637. The Turks tried but failed to capture the castle in 1644. The same year in June, a bigger raiding party attempted to take the fort but they were pushed into the Zala River by the counterattack of the castle's warriors. There was a serious fight, and twenty Hungarian soldiers were killed but we don't know the losses of the Turks. The fleeing enemy set a village on fire and took away five men and two little girls.
Castle of Csáktornya (Cakovec)
https://www.google.hu/maps/@46.3799048,16.4023744,8586m/data=!3m1!1e3
The castle was given to the Zrínyi family in 1546. Under the rule of Miklós Zrínyi I (the great-grandfather of the poet and general Miklós Zrínyi II) the castle and the city started to develop. The castle was rebuilt in Italian fashion and the Zrínyies lived like kings in the Renaissance palace of it, amid active cultural life. As a frontier castle not far from the Turkish-controlled Kanizsa castle, the fort was an important post. It was the dwelling place of Miklós Zrínyi II, who wrote his poems and works here, and this was where he died in 1664 after that suspicious boar-hunt. After his death, his brother Péter organized the anti-Habsburg conspiracy from Csáktornya. When Péter was executed in 1671, the castle was taken by the Emperor.
Castle of Csanád
Located near Kanizsa, in 1598 its captain was Ferenc Lugosi. With only two hundred soldiers, he was not frightened of the outnumbering enemy but withstood the Turkish attacks in the most valiant way. When he came to realize that they could not continue such an unbalanced fight, he broke his people out in a very brave and tricky way. Captain Lugosi had all of his people—women included—put on armor and take up sabers, and had all of the cannons loaded with double and triple loads of gunpowder and two cannon balls apiece and put a burning fuse connected to them. At late night he had the gates opened and lots of straw spread on the bridge to soften the noise of the horses as all of them left the castle without being noticed by the Turk guards. When they reached the enemy's lines, the fuse ignited the cannons and a hellish volley struck the Turks' guardposts as the copper cannons exploded. The Turks thought that the defenders would prepare their breakout with this volley, not realizing that they had already done so under the cover of dark. The Hungarians went through the Turkish camp but eventually were discovered when they ran into a five hundred-strong unit. Immediately they ambushed the surprised Turks and desperately cut themselves out of the camp. The women also fought as they had nothing to lose. The enemy were frightened, thinking a bigger reinforcement must have arrived, and yielded the ground.
Castle of Keszthely
The city of Keszthely was raided by the Aga of Koppány in 1589 so after this the inner city had itself surrounded by a palisade and a moat. The outskirts of the city were inhabited by peasants, and they had to pay taxes, unlike the inhabitants of the inner city.
It was a frontier castle near Lake Balaton. The defenders of Keszthely sided with Prince Bocskay in 1605 and didn't accept the truce between Bocskay and the Habsburgs, so the king had to take the castle by siege in 1608. Although the Turks laid a major siege against it in 1650, they could never take the city, and it always remained under the rule of Royal Hungary.
Castle of Palota (Palace)
The defenders of Palota were under an incredibly heavy pressure between 1552 and 1566 due to the capture of Veszprém castle by the Turks.
At that time the captain of Palota was György Thury, a valiant duelist and warrior. There were barely two hundred hussars guarding it when Pasha Arslan of Buda attacked the castle with an overwhelming force of eight thousand soldiers and lots of cannons in June, 1566. When the enemy completely surrounded the castle and night fell, all the hussars broke out noiselessly and attacked the sleeping Turks.
They made such a savage clamor, while setting everything burnable on fire, that Pasha Arslan began to panic. He panicked all the more when it was reported that a huge army of reinforcements was approaching the castle. He wouldn't have known that it was just the noise made by the judge of Győr city, who had sent many wagons to the Bakony hill to collect wood and branches. As many citizens of Győr were Swabians, they spoke and sang in German while working. Pasha Arslan gave the order to withdraw. He later received a silk string for it from the sultan (i.e., he was manually strangled with a silk string). Meanwhile, the German General Salm was hunting near Győr, not caring about Palota's peril. He arrived three days later with his troops.
A few years later in 1571, György Thury was slaughtered by the Turks when he was ensnared at Orosztony in Zala County. Tamás Pálffy became the new captain of Palota in 1573. After he managed to get the fort reinforced, he led a series of victorious raids against the Turks. Still, there were times when no more than thirty soldiers guarded the castle but were still able to hold it. Finally, the Turks were able to take the castle during the Fifteen Year War in 1593 when the captain, Peter Ormándy, made a heroic effort to defend the fort but in a hopeless situation he ceded Palota to the Turks. He was promised by Pasha Sinan, Grand Vizier, that he and his people could leave the castle safely but the Turks broke their word and slaughtered him. Five years later, led by Miklós Pálffy and Adolf Schwarzenberg, the Christian troops took Győr back from the enemy and launched an overall attack against the Turkish frontier castles of the Trans-Danubian region. They took back the castles of Csókakő and Gesztes, then laid siege of Palota. Two days later the Turks surrendered, and the castle fell into Hungarian hands again. The Turks recaptured it in 1605 when the troops of Köse Hussein took the castle of Veszprém. The Turks emptied the fort in 1614 for unknown reasons so it was returned to the Christians. In connection to Prince Bethlen's attack against the Habsburgs in 1623, the Turkish Bey of Fehérvár was able to take it and hold it on their side until 1687. So at the Ring of Fire it was in Turkish hands, but circumstances changed very rapidly.
Castle of Tata
The Turks captured this castle in 1543 but later it changed hands nine times during the one hundred forty-five-year-long Turkish rule. It was under the enemy's command for sixteen years. In 1630 it was by Hungary.
Castle of Pápa
This castle belonged to the immediate defense belt of forts before Vienna, and thus it was well maintained. It had the third largest garrison next to Győr castle, with between five hundred and a thousand soldiers. Its famous captains were János Török (Turk), László Majthényi, Péter Huszár, and István Török.
Pápa Castle fell into Turkish possession twice, the first time between 1594-1597 and later in 1683 for just a couple of months. There was an uprising of the Walloon mercenaries in 1600 when the soldiers rebelled to get their pay; the Austrians put them down only after a two-month siege. The Walloons had wanted to hand the castle over to the Turks in the hope of better payment.
Castle of Győr
This city is located not very far away from Vienna so all advancing armies had to face its walls. After 1541 the Turks reached it and the castle's commander, Christopher Lamberg, thought it would be futile to defend the town so he burnt it down. The arriving Turks could see nothing of the castle's walls, just the smoking blackened ruins, hence the Turkish name for Győr, Yamk Hale (burnt castle).
During rebuilding, the town was surrounded by fortifications, and a city wall was designed by the leading Italian builders of the era. The town changed in character during these years, with many new buildings built in Renaissance style, but the main square and the grid of streets remained.
In 1594, after the death of its captain, Count János Cseszneky, the Ottoman army occupied the castle and the town because the Italian and German troops surrendered it in exchange of free passage. Their captain, Ferdinand Hardegg, was beheaded for it later.
In 1598 the Hungarian and Austrian army, led by Miklós Pálffy and Adolf Schwarzenberg, took control of it again.
In 1683, the Turks returned briefly, only to leave after being defeated in the Battle of Vienna.
Castle of Kőszeg
The most famous event of Kőszeg castle was its siege in 1532. After the Defeat of Mohács (1526), the Turks' next destination became Vienna. Great Suleiman I himself led the Ottoman army. The small and old-fashioned Kőszeg castle was in the way but it was defended by the brave Miklós (Nicholas) Jurisics with only a couple hundred warriors and seven hundred peasant soldiers to protect the eighteen hundred women and twenty-three hundred children who took refuge there. They were surrounded by the contemporary world's strongest army, one hundred and fifty thousand Turks. Seventy thousand of them besieged the castle, fifteen thousand of which were Janissaries. They held the castle for twenty days during which the Turks attacked it nineteen times. The Turks undermined the walls, and once they exploded a twenty-foot stretch of them. They built earth ramparts to three sides of the walls and kept attacking the castle from all sides. Huge rains pouring down during the siege helped the defenders. The castle—or its ruins—were only symbolically handed over to the enemy, and only their flag was allowed to be put on the tower. After the unsuccessful siege, at the end of August, the Turks moved towards Vienna. The heroic resistance of Kőszeg bought time for the Christian armies to arrive and assemble before Vienna. Jurisics was made a baron the next year and was rewarded with five captaincies in Lower Austria. The city was given tax exemption and other privileges by Ferdinand I. The castle was rebuilt, and the city became an important trading point between Vienna and the Adriatic Sea. Ever since, the citizens of Köszeg toll their bells every day at 11 A.M. to commemorate the victory. The city opened its gates to Prince Bocskay in 1605, but the Habsburgs took it back a month later. The same thing happened in 1619 with Prince Bethlen when the inhabitants were more reluctant to yield the castle so their settlement was put to the torch. The Transylvanians took the city in 1620, too; burning some 200 houses again. Prince Bethlen nominated a local citizen as their captain, Mihály Hörmann. After the Prince had taken his leave, the Habsburgs' troops soon arrived, and the city opened its gates to them. Mihály Hörmann, loyal to the Prince, exploded five tons of gunpowder when the Austrians entered the city. He paid for his loyalty with his head the next day.
Castle of Komárom (Komarno)
It was a formidable fortress, blocking the Danube before Vienna and Pozsony, making all river passage impossible. It was never taken.
Castle of Sopron
It was a strategic castle and city right before Vienna; one more obstacle for the attacking enemy. The city of Sopron was a rapidly growing trading and market center next to the Austrian border. It had a population in 1633 of about four thousand people. It was also a coronation town: Ferdinand II's second wife, Queen Eleonora, was crowned here in 1622. The Diet of Sopron elected Ferdinand II's son, Duke Ferdinand to be King of Hungary in November, 1625, and he was crowned there in December.
Due to the religious persecutions, many Evangelical [i.e., Lutheran] Austrians moved to Sopron in the first decade of the seventeenth century. Most famous of them was the aristocratic Eggenberg family, but renowned intellectuals, craftsmen, and merchants came there from all over Austria. For example, Andreas Rauch, the famous organ artist, arrived there from Vienna in 1628 and Johann Sartory, a chemist, in 1629. A famous Society of Noble Scientists was established in the city by Kristóf Lackner, a city judge, in 1604. It was similar to a guild of intellectuals; its members in 1625 were Gábor Lampert, pastor from Balf, Münderer Gottfried, pastor of Borbolya in 1623, and Jeremias Scholtz, physician. In spite of the sophisticated atmosphere, there was a nasty witch-hunt going on in 1630.
****
There are many other fabulous castles of Royal Hungary that were not mentioned in details but nevertheless, they all played an important role in keeping the kingdom intact. The most important ones are listed here:
Tihany, Légrád, Kapronca, Egerszeg, Szigliget, Egervár, Körmend, Németújvár, Csobánc, Fraknó, Zólyom, Késmárk, Eperjes, Kismarton, Magyaróvár, Vöröskő, Gimes, Korpona, Csábrág, Végles, Kékkő, Salgó, Somoskő, Diósgyőr, Torna, Krasznahorka, Sólyomkő, Boldogkő, Füzér, Szerencs, Ónod, Ungvár, Kisvárda, Ecsed, Kálló, Károly, Visegrád, Huszt, Léva, Sümeg, Veszprém.
Most of them are in ruins now: the Habsburgs had them exploded, one by one, so as not to give shelter to any rebels in days to come.
****
Principality of Transylvania
Castle and City of Nagyvárad (Oradea, Großwardein )
This was also called Várad, and it was the most important frontier castle against the Turks on the Transylvanian side of old Hungary. It was also one of the gates to Transylvania, and the princes regarded it as their second capital. Accordingly, the rank of its captain was elevated because its bearer became the second in rank after the prince. The captain of Nagyvárad was under the direct command of Transylvania's ruling prince, was second in rank after him, and was his substitute when the prince was on a campaign abroad. All of the princes, István Báthory, Kristóf Báthory, István Bocskay, and György Rákóczi II had been captains of Várad before becoming rulers of Transylvania.
István Báthory was its captain in 1559, and when he became a prince in 1571, he began carrying out large construction works within the castle in the Italian late-Renaissance fashion that was considered the most modern fort architecture of the time. The building was completed in 1596 by Italian architects like Pietro Ferrabosco, Ottavio Baldigara, Domenico Ridolfino and Simone Genga.
Prince Kristóf Báthory granted collective nobility to the citizens of Nagyvárad in 1580. Yet the citizens swore fealty to Emperor Rudolf, asking for his son, Miksa's, protection against Prince Báthory and the Turks. Archduke Miksa sent German troops to aid them and occupy this strategic city. The Turks besieged it unsuccessfully in 1598. Prince Bocskay laid siege to it as well. His army had to wait two years to starve the defenders out, making them surrender in 1606. Ferenc Rhédey was the captain of Nagyvárad between 1613-1618 and he modernized the fortifications.
Prince Bethlen had the old, ruined medieval buildings pulled down in 1619 and ordered his Italian architect, Giacomo Resti, to build a pentangular renaissance palace for him that was finished only around 1650. It was the biggest Renaissance palace of Central and Eastern Europe. The city was blooming during the reign of Prince György Rákóczi I, especially due to his wife, Zsuzsanna Lorántffy. They supported the Reformed church and established a college. The first printing house was launched in 1565 when the Polish printer Raffael Hoffhalter settled in Nagyvárad. The next press was set up sixty years later by Ábrahám Szenczi Kertész. István Bethlen had the press brought from Luneburgum and Prince Rákóczi acquired special oval letters for it around 1640. The Hungarian Bible of Nagyvárad was first printed in 1657. The 1500 copies weren't finished because of the Turk siege of 1660. Luckily, they were able to smuggle the printed pages out and could complete the work in Kolozsvár (Cluj, Klausenburg). It was a sorrowful time because Prince György Rákóczi II was killed in a battle by the Turks, after he had wasted the Transylvanian army in a war for the Polish throne.
Nagyvárad was a serious fort but most of their defenders went to the burial of the prince, led by their captain, Ferenc Gyulai. Only eight hundred fifty untrained soldiers were left behind under the leadership of vice captain, Máté Balogh, when Pasha Achmed and Pasha Ali of Temesvár set out to capture this important castle with fifty thousand seasoned soldiers. At the same time, near the border of Royal Hungary was the sizable army of General Souches who refused the begging and pleading of the city and denied even minimal help against the Turks. In the meantime the two pashas sacked Debrecen and destroyed some cities before completing the siege around Nagyvárad. It took them a month to drain the water of the moat and destroy the walls with mines and artillery. The defenders lacked the military knowledge to be able to use their own cannons, but they were valiant in close combat. After forty-four days of futile resistance, vice-captain Balogh left the castle with his people under the terms that the city wouldn't be sacked. Their heroic fight can be compared to the warriors of Eger, even though they weren't victorious. After the loss of Nagyvárad the Habsburgs received criticism internationally because the whole Partium (a great area between Transylvania and Royal Hungary) was now under Turkish control. Its loss marked the end of Transylvania's independence.
Castle of Borosjenő (Ineu, Janopol)
It had a grand Renaissance palace that was damaged in a fire in 1618 but was extended and renovated between 1625-1630. It belonged to the Transylvanian princes, but had always been badly wanted by the Turks.
Castle of Lippa (Lipova)
It was owned by Ferdinand I in 1551 but its Serbian soldiers, fifteen hundred men in all, surrendered it to Mehmed Begler-Bey of Rumelia. The Turks pillaged the city but Brother György, the famous monk and statesman, took it back in the same year. The following year its Spanish garrison yielded the fort to the Turks. The Turks organized a sanjak around it and garrisoned the castle with between one hundred and five hundred men. Many Sephardic Jews arrived there during this time. After forty years of Turkish rule, György Borbély's Transylvanian army took the castle. The Begler-Bey of Temesvár attacked the place in 1595 but Prince Báthory's arriving army chased him away. The Prince left two thousand soldiers in the castle which enabled them to beat the Turks back three years later. Lippa fell to the Romanian Prince Michael in 1600 but was taken back in 1604 by Prince Bocskay. (The Serbians surrendered the castle to him.) The Pasha of Temesvár captured it in 1605, and the next year it was taken back by István Petneházy's army. During the next few years this fort played an important role in Turkish-Transylvanian negotiations. The Turks wanted to get back Lippa and Borosjenö that had been organic parts of their frontier castle chain before the Fifteen Year War. Several Transylvanian princes had fed them with promises to give the two castles back but when Gábor Bethlen needed the confirmation of the Sublime Porte in order to gain the throne—he didn't take risks and had agreed to give the forts "back". He said:
"…if I had a way of keeping it, I would follow that way at all costs—but I have no means to hold it or to procrastinate it any longer because the Turks wouldn't allow me to do so even if I vomited my soul in front of them…"
Finally in 1616 it had to be ceded to them but its defenders, especially Captain István Vajda, didn't want to accept the decision: everybody thought it a shame and finally Prince Bethlen had to take it from him by siege. Afterwards the prince offered the fort to the Begler-Bey of Temesvár. Prince Bethlen's reputation suffered quite a bit from this action in the eyes of the Hajdu soldiers all over the country.
The Turkish Bey of Lippa repaired, enlarged, and reinforced the castle and brought more Turks there from the surrounding Turkish frontier castles. Three circles of walls protected the inner castle, and there were fifteen hundred houses around the outer walls. The Turks installed the water of the nearby springs into the city and covered the streets with wooden boards. Allegedly seven schools could be found in the city. Altogether there were 953 defenders in 1621 and 800 in 1660. Prince György Rakoczi II defeated Achmed, Pasha of Buda, under the castle's walls in 1658. General Caraffa took it back after a four-day siege in 1686.
Lugos ( Lugoj)
The city had a castle surrounded by a wooden palisade and bastions. The Turks took it in 1552 but Sultan Suleiman the Great gave it to King Zsigmond János. The place was burned down in 1594 and in 1599 by the Tatars and also in 1603, then it was burnt by Captain Henry Dampierre Duval. The castle used to be an integral part of the frontier castles guarding Transylvania's border between 1536 and 1658. It was also a local center, and its garrison consisted of Hungarian, Romanian, and Serbian inhabitants who were mostly soldiers. There were six hundred riders and seven hundred infantrymen in 1626. A Romanian Reformed pastor called Moisi Pestisel, who was one of the Romanian translators of the Old Testament, lived here in 1581. Another famous Romanian pastor was Istvan Fogarasi, the translator of Protestant works into Romanian language in the 1640s. The city also became the religious center of Orthodox Romanian believers in 1622. The city became the property of the Treasury in 1615. The castle disobeyed Prince Bethlen in 1616 so it had to be taken by force. It was one of the castles the Turks demanded for allowing Bethlen to become a prince. The castle fell under Turkish rule permanently only after 1658, resulting in the escape of its inhabitants to Transylvania.
Karánsebes (Caransebes, Karansebesch)
This was a smaller settlement with many privileges, located on a strategic place. It belonged to the German Teutonic Order of Knights between 1429 and 1435. During that time, the Romanian Vlad Dracul, the infamous historical father of the "Dracula," allied with the Turks, pillaged it. The city's heyday was during the time of the Transylvanian Principality because it was the headquarters of Lugos-Karánsebes County between the 1530s and 1658. Its furrier guild was very famous. Most of the inhabitants were Romanians but some Hungarians and Saxons. There were religious divisions among them but after the Diet of Torda in 1564, it was ordered that its church should be used alternately by the Reformed and the Catholic people of the city, every other week. Later the church became the property of the Reformed church. However, there was a Jesuit mission working there between 1625 and 1640, led by the Romanian George Buitul who tried to convert the greatest population of Reformed Romanians of Transylvania. The city couldn't avoid the Serbian mercenaries' attack that had been instigated by General Basta. They destroyed the nearby villages and sacked the city, selling many enslaved people to the Turks. Finally the citizens' uprising chased them away in 1604. The castle and the city became the property of the princes in 1605 and remained in their possession for a long time. Its garrison included two hundred riders and two hundred infantrymen in 1626. Ákos Barcsay, its captain between 1644-1658, finally ceded it to the Turks. It was taken back only after 1688.
Temesvár (Timisoara, Temeswar)
This was a strategic castle next to the Transylvanian border, a much disputed fort between the Turks and the Hungarians. First the castle beat the Turks back in 1551 but its famous siege took place in 1552. Pasha Achmed led an army of thirty thousand against the fort that was defended by chief Comes István (Stephen) Losonci who had barely two thousand Spanish, Hungarian, Czech, German, and Italian soldiers. After twenty-five days of siege, the Turks destroyed the water tower of the city so Losonci had to start negotiations. He was allowed to leave freely with his soldiers, accompanied by the city's inhabitants, but the Turks slaughtered them, capturing and beheading the seriously injured Losonci in the end. In spite of the massacre, the city began to develop during the Turkish rule, especially its agriculture. Temesvár was also an important trading center. It was the first city where beside the Turkish merchants, the Jewish traders appeared in bigger numbers. The houses of the city were built of clay and covered by wooden roofs, and the streets were paved by wooden planks. Each quarter of the city was surrounded by water and had its own fortress. Temesvár became a center of an elayet, and it was the starting point to launch raids and military moves against the nearby regions. Important Turkish officials and foreign envoys, including the Sultans, visited many times. All of the fugitives from Transylvania found shelter here, especially those who aspired to get the throne of Transylvania with the Turks' help. Gábor Bethlen used to stay in the city like many Romanians who wanted to rule Wallachia or Moldavia one day.
Szatmár (Romanian: Satu Mare, German: Sathmar, Yiddish: Szákmér)
After the Defeat of Mohács (1526), Szatmár was the third-best fortified frontier castle of the Kingdom of Hungary, built on its easternmost part. It was rebuilt in the modern Italian fashion with five bastions. It was on the three-sided border between Royal Hungary, Transylvania and the Turkish Occupied Lands. Control passed back and forth between the Transylvanians and the Habsburgs. General Basta in 1603 ordered the Italian Cesare Porta to complete the reconstruction of the fort. Nevertheless, it was occupied by Prince Bocskay the next year. Prince Bethlen got hold of it in 1622, according to the Peace of Nikolsburg. Prince György Rákóczi I's armies attacked the castle rather successfully in 1645, unlike the Turk armies in 1660 and 1663.
Nagybánya (Baia Mare, Frauenbach)
It got its name from its plentiful silver and gold mines. The inhabitants were mostly Saxons, craftsmen, miners, and merchants. The city's patron saint is Saint István (Stephen), the first Hungarian king. The city was renowned in distant lands for its great Saint István cathedral that was finished in 1387. The church is 50 meters long while its tower is 40 meters high. In the time of King Matthias, Nagybánya produced more than the half of Hungary's gold, even though the mining towns in Upper Hungary were also very productive. All kinds of artisans lived in the guilds of the city: carpenters, masons, furriers, potters, tailors, goldsmiths, and silversmiths, all had a very good reputation. The goldsmiths were especially world-famous; one of them became a professor of Gresham College in London. The townfolk became Protestant in 1547, and the first Reformed college in Transylvania was established there. Usurers held the renting rights and lived off the rich town's profits. Prince Bethlen took these rights away from them and freed the city from its unjust debt, gifting the mining rights to the city in 1620. In the Ring of Fire period the city was owned by Prince György Rákóczi I.
Radna (Rodna, Roden)
It was famous for its silver mines and was inhabited mostly by Saxons, but the high population included many Hungarians and Romanians as well. The city had very good relations with the cities in Romanian Moldova, for example with the mining city of Moldvabánya. It was the reason why they declined to join the prince's army in 1632 against the Romanians. In the first part of the seventeenth century many Saxon families moved to the depopulated city of Beszterce so the role of the Saxons in Radna had decreased.
They didn't elect a Saxon City judge in the 1640s, and the Saxon and Hungarian pastors were preaching together in the church.
Marosvásárhely (Tirgu Mures, Nai Muark)
This was the center of the Seclers. After the Fifteen Year War the city was burned by German mercenaries, and in 1602 the rest of the houses were put to the torch by the Hungarians. The rebuilding went on until 1653. It became a free royal city in 1616. It was burned again in 1658 by Romanian and Turkish raiders. Pasha Ali took the town and made Mihály Apafi the Prince of Transylvania within its walls. Due to the Turks' carelessness the city burned down the next year. The next raiders were the Austrians in 1687. Later these activities continued. During the first part of the eighteenth century this city was hit four times by devastating plagues. Despite these hardships, the city remained the cultural, educational, and trade center of the Seclers.
Csíkszereda (Miercurea Ciuc, Seclerburg)
This city was built at a trade junction and has always been a Catholic center for the Seclers. A Catholic college was founded here in 1630. At the time of the Ring of Fire, the city belonged to Ferenc Mikó, the councilor of Prince Bethlen. Count Ferenc Mikó (1585-1635) was also a famous diplomat and chronicler. He was the captain of Csík county and began to build the castle of Mikó there in 1623.
Torda (Turda, Torembrich)
Torda was the administrative center of the Transylvanian salt mines, and this was a key function in that time.
After the collapse of the Hungarian feudal state because of the taking of Buda by the Turks in 1541, the Diet of Torda in 1542 accepted Zsigmond János as the first Prince of Transylvania. It was the city where the Diet accepted the Protestant churches in 1557 and they declared the famous freedom of religion in 1568. During the bloody campaign of General Basta and his Austrian mercenaries in 1601, the inhabitants of Torda took refuge behind the walls of their Reformed church, which was built in gothic style. Basta had his cannons brought up and destroyed its walls, killing everybody inside. Prince Bethlen gave the depopulated settlement to salt miners in 1614. The town received a collective nobility in 1665.
Zalatna (Zlatna, Goldenmarkt)
Its name derives from the Slavic word zlatna meaning gold. There were many rich gold mines, some of which are still in use. All the princes took good care of this mining city, and it was developing rapidly during the RoF. Its inhabitants were mainly Saxon miners.
Déva (Deva, Dimmrich)
This was a fortress that was considered one of the key gates of Transylvania. Its most famous holder had been János Hunyadi, King Matthias' father. The first Unitarian bishop of Transylvania, Ferenc Dávid, was imprisoned and died here in 1579. It was the castle where the General Giorgio Basta wanted to execute all high aristocrats of Transylvania in 1603. Both Prince Bocskay and Bethlen were its owners; they used it as their living place. Déva was the dwelling place of Mária Széchy, the "Venus of Murány", between 1627 and 1640. It was Prince Bethlen who began the renovation of the castle in Renaissance style.
Vajdahunyad (Hunedoara, Hunnedeng)
This was the traditional knight castle of the great János Hunyadi. It can be seen today as it was built in its gothic glamour. It was attacked by the Romanian Michael in 1601. In 1618, the castle became the property of the Bethlen family, who renovated and improved it. Maria Széchy lived here in 1632 for a short time. Several guilds were working in the city: tailors, tillers, boot makers, and furriers. The Reformed church was established here in 1634.
Brassó (Brasov, Kronstadt or Kruhnen)
This well-fortified city was the main center of the Saxons of Transylvania. The settlers had come primarily from the Rhineland and the Moselle region, with others from Bavaria and even from distant parts of France.
Germans living in Brassó were mainly involved in trade and crafts. The location of this city at the intersection of trade routes linking the Ottoman Empire and Western Europe, together with certain tax exemptions, allowed Saxon merchants to obtain considerable wealth and exert a strong political influence. The town's "Black Church" is claimed to be the largest gothic-style church in Southeastern Europe. The first book printing office of Transylvania was established here in 1529, and the first book ever printed in Hungarian language was also made here around 1580. In the famous Saxon college of the town, students were taught not only in German but also in the Hungarian language, beginning in 1637.
Prince Gábor Báthory was defeated at Brassó in 1611 by the combined forces of Saxons and Romanians. The city and the church were put to the torch in 1689 by General Caraffa's mercenaries, hence the name the Black Church.
Szeben (Sibiu, Hermannstadt)
This medieval royal and free Hungarian town became the spiritual and trading center of the Saxons. János Hunyadi defeated Bey Mezid in 1444 under its strong walls which were defended by forty bastions.
The Turks were never able to take it, but there was a great fire in 1556. The Tatar raiders sacked the city in 1658.
Kolozsvár (Cluj, Klausenburg)
This was the historical center and the most important town of Transylvania, the birthplace of King Matthias. It was one of the seven fortified Saxon cities that gave Transylvania its German name of Siebenbürgen. Prince István Bocskay was also born here. The town was in its heyday during Prince Bethlen's period when Transylvania was called a "fairy garden." Kolozsvár was called similarly the "treasure-house Kolozsvár." Both Prince Gábor Bethlen and Prince György Rákóczi I were elected prince here. The first university of Transylvania was established here by Prince Báthori in 1585. Its Jesuit professors were unfortunately chased away in 1603, and so the university closed its gates. Prince Gábor Bethlen issued a document here in favor of the Jewish inhabitants all over Transylvania in 1623 which permitted them to settle freely, trade freely, and practice their religion freely, without the obligation of wearing the distinctive marks for the Jewish.
Gyulafehérvár (Alba Iulia, Karlsburg)
This was the capital of Transylvania, the seat of the princes, between 1542 and 1690. It had also been the administrative center of Transylvania in the medieval period of the Hungarian Kingdom. János Hunyadi defeated his legendary adversary, Bey Mezid, and his fifteen thousand-strong army next to the city in a three-day-long battle in 1442. The last freely-elected Hungarian national king who was also the first Prince of Transylvania, Zsigmond János, died in the city in 1571. He, his queen, and his son are buried in the city's Saint Istvan (Stephen) Basilica. The city saw the short and bloody rule of the Romanian Prince Michael in 1599-1600 and suffered the burnings and sacking of General Basta in 1602. Its Reformed college was established by Prince Bethlen, who died in the city in 1629. The Diet of Gyulafehérvár in 1630 reconfirmed the union of the historical three nations of Transylvania: the Hungarian, the Saxon, and the Secler.
****
Other famous settlements of Transylvania are: Székelyhíd, Kereki, Almás, Sebesvár, Szalonta, Arad, Medgyes, Fogaras, Kővár, Torockó, Nagyenyed
****
Turkish-Occupied Lands
City of Szolnok
This had an important function on the frontier because it was the entrance to Eger castle, which guarded the road to the north. Sultan Suleiman II ordered Pasha Achmed Ali and Mohamed to take Szolnok and Eger in 1552. The castle had been fortified in 1550, and Lörinc Nyáry was made its captain. He commanded fourteen hundred Spanish, German, and Czech mercenaries and had just a handful of Hungarian soldiers. The fort was supplied with twenty-four cannons and three thousand muskets along with eight hundred quintals of gunpowder.
Pasha Achmed Ali besieged the castle with his forty thousand-strong army on September 2, 1552. The German mercenaries were the first to think of fleeing but it turned out that the Hungarian boaters had fled away before them. The next day the Hungarian and the Spanish riders swam across the River Tisza at night, and then the boaters returned for the rest of the foot soldiers. All of the mercenaries had fled by the third day of the siege and left the gate ajar behind themselves. Captain Nyáry and his 50 faithful Hajdu soldiers were left behind and captured by the Turks, who garrisoned the fort with two thousand soldiers and went on against Eger castle. The memory of this shame still lives today. The castle remained in Turkish hands until 1685.
Szolnok became the center of a Turkish sanjak and unlike at other places, they began the construction of several typical Turkish buildings: they built a bath, a minaret, and a mosque in 1553. They made the first permanent bridge over the Tisza River in 1562. It was in Szolnok where they copied the only Turkish manuscript written in Hungary about the Hungarian campaigns of Suleiman the Great.
Castle of Gyula
This was a stronghold on the Great Hungarian Plain, taken by Pasha Pertev in 1566. The siege lasted for two months and finally the defenders, led by captain László Kerecsényi, withdrew into the brick-built inner castle. At last he surrendered the castle in exchange for free passage but upon leaving the ruins, he and his soldiers were put to the sword.
For more than a century the castle had controlled the area between the Körös and the Maros Rivers. Gyula became a center of its sanjak that was divided into four parts: the Nahije of Arad, Békés, Zaránd and Bihar. The bey of Gyula ruled over these territories. The town had a mixed population of Turks and Hungarians. Using the stones of the surrounding areas' Christian churches as building materials, the Muslims erected two mosques, a ceremonial bath, and a turbe (tomb). This town was well-documented in the writings of Evlija Chelebi, the Turkish traveller who filled 10 thick books with his stories and descriptions between 1664-1666. On assignment for the Sublime Porte, he mustered almost all places of the Ottoman Empire during his forty years of service. He wrote of Gyula that it had "…two hundred shops and three churches in the outer town…it is a peculiar spectacle that everybody uses a boat when they visit each other from house to house, from garden to the mill." As the tax-paying Hungarian population was severely decreasing, the Turks tried to fill the numbers up with settlers from the South Slavic areas, giving them the abandoned villages, as they did elsewhere.
There is a village near Gyula, called Ajtós. It is known for the German-Hungarian who left for Germany in 1455 and became famous in Nurnberg: Albrecht Dürer's father. The word "Dürer" is the direct translation of the village's name, "Ajtós."
Castle and Town of Szeged
The Habsburgs' army took the town from the Hungarian King Szapolyai in 1542 which made the Turks very angry. The Sultan punished the town's people rather severely for ceding the place to Ferdinand I when after the siege of 1543 he took over the castle. Later Szeged was put under the central treasury's command so the tax was paid directly to it there. It was more advantageous than the situation of Spahi-owned lands where the Spahies literally robbed the settlements while they were in their possessions. For this reason, the inhabitants of many villages moved to Szeged.
Castle of Kecskemét
The Turks captured it in 1541 and it was attached—luckily—to the Pasha of Buda so it was not a harassed and overtaxed Spahi dominion. Later, in 1565, Kecskemét also became a treasury-owned settlement so they could develop a more independent local authority in the city. Despite the constant wars, the city enjoyed relative peace and received many inhabitants running away from villages, eventually becoming the most significant settlement of the area between the River Danube and the River Tisza. The symbol of the city's privileges became a mysterious Turkish kaftan that had been given to the judge of the city to wear when the Turks would come to collect the taxes. The records of the city say: "It was in the year Anno Domini 1596 at the time of Eger castle's taking, when Sultan Muhamet II appeared in front of the city. The citizens of Kecskemét went before him with presents, giving him six hundred sheep, one hundred cattle and fourteen wagons of bread…and they begged the Sultan to send them a Bey to protect them from the armies. The Sultan gifted them with three hundred gold pieces and gave them a golden-woven kaftan, telling them to go home and they should put the coat on if someone wanted to hurt them. When later Turkish soldiers wanted to sack the city, the judge rode out in this kaftan. Amazingly, all the Turks paid respect immediately and left the city alone."
The city survived the one hundred and fifty years of Turkish rule quite intact but it was destroyed by Serbian attackers in 1707.
Castle of Cegléd
This became a Turkish-owned town right after the capture of Szolnok in 1553. It enjoyed more peace than most because it belonged directly to the Sultan. Many area villagers flocked there to find refuge. Cold, outdoor cattle-keeping became the main source of the living.
Cegléd joined an alliance with Kecskemét and Nagykörös in the 1550s and possessed a higher level of independence and local authority. Almost everybody was a Calvinist, and they had a Reformed college as well. They also seized the Catholics' church. The city prospered until the Fifteen Year War broke out in 1591. Due to the war, all the inhabitants ran away to Nagykőrös between 1596 and 1602. They were slowly coming back during the seventeenth century, and the economy was again flourishing but when the Turks were finally driven out, the people fled to Nagykőrös and Kecskemét in 1683. Kecskemét's growth is a very good example how indifferent and careless the Turks had been toward these half-conquered occupied territories. Gradually they allowed the local authorities to become almost as strong as they had been in the feudal Hungarian Kingdom. Kecskemét finally regained the right of punishment and granting pardon in the county. The Turks retained only the collection of the ever-increasing taxes. The Turks expected to get "gifts" which were not included in any laws but these bribes were needed if anybody wanted to achieve anything with the officials. These gifts were offered to the offices normally once a year, even if there were not any requests or complaints to be taken care of. Regardless of the city and the region's political masters, in the 1630s the Transylvanian prince as well as the Hungarian king, Ferdinand, had been trying to extend their authority, and they imposed their claims by issuing documents that gave noblemen they endorsed ownership of territories long occupied by the Turks. The endorsed landlords could even take their feudal gift into their possessions—partly or wholly. For example, a nobleman called János (John) Lugossy received a property near Cegléd from the Transylvanian prince. After the death of this landlord the right to the property went to his heir, Imre Bercsényi, who was able to get a confirmation of this right from the Hungarian king Ferdinand in 1636. The tax-collecting of Hungarian landlords had become a regular and accepted habit by 1630 but sometimes Hungarian soldiers had to go with the wagons. The race for the taxes was not only about mere money—the Hungarians this way could interfere with the everyday life of the sultan's subjects.
Castle and City of Buda
Buda was the most important western frontier castle of the Ottoman Empire. Its pasha or begler bey had been the second-highest ranked person after the sultan, usually after the grand vizier. He was in charge of the Elayet of Buda—simultaneously the military commander and the leader of the civil administratio. Besides, he was authorized to conduct the diplomatic negotiations with the Habsburg powers. In the absence of the sultan or the grand vizier, the pasha of Buda was the leader of the entire Turkish army in Occupied Hungary. All the other elayets belonged under his rule. The pasha of Buda automatically received the rank of a vizier from 1623 on.
The Turks carefully built out a strong belt of castles around Buda (like Esztergom or Székesfehérvár) and established a chain of forts towards Vienna. In peaceful times, the garrison of Buda numbered two thousand soldiers, mostly Janissaries.
When the Turks seized the old royal city of Buda in 1541, they robbed the famous library of King Matthias and systematically destroyed the frescoes and sculptures of the most beautiful gothic cathedral in the center. A traveler who worked for the Fuggers, Hans Dernschwam, described the poor conditions in 1555. The environment hadn't become any better by 1630. He wrote of it as: "The houses are collapsing one by one. There is no trace of a new construction, except some shads where one could take shelter from rain and snow. There had been great halls and stalls that now are divided into hundreds of makeshift cells made of stone, wood and clay."
"The Turks don't need wine-cellars so they had filled them with garbage. The houses look as they had no owner…they made a mosque from the Catholic church and threw the altar and the tombstones out…many rooms are walled in. The houses look like pigsties and they are so much built around that you couldn't recognize the wagon-entrances because they fabricated stalls and a bazaar in front of the houses where the Turkish craftsmen sit and work according to their habits."
Pest
This was situated across the Danube river from Buda. It was not a well-fortified settlement, but was protected by just a simple stone wall with many towers and bastions on it. Yet its defenders' number was not small, usually between one thousand and fifteen hundred soldiers.
Castle of Szigetvár
This was an important sanjak center, the southern gate of Hungary.
It was defended by Miklós (Nicholas) Zrínyi in 1566 against the army of Sultan Suleiman the Great and his one hundred thousand soldiers. Zrínyi, the great-grandfather of the Miklós (Nicholas) Zrínyi who was eleven years old at the time of the Ring of Fire, had only twenty-five hundred men but was able to hold the small castle for thirty-four days. When even the inner castle was in flames, Zrínyi led his remaining three hundred men out of the castle and died attacking the Turks. His heroic example became a legend in Hungary. It was the last siege for old Suleiman, too; he died at the castle and allegedly his heart was buried there.
****
There were other castles in the Occupied Lands that were of significance:
Zsámbék, Hollókő, Hatvan, Jászberény,Fenlak, Érd, Fok, Földvár, Simontornya, Kalocsa, Szekszárd, Pécs, Kaposvár, Segesd, Babócsa, and Valpó.
****