Visegrád is a small
castle townA castle town is a town or city built adjacent to or surrounding a castle.Castle towns are common in Medieval Europe, where towns would form around ancient Roman fortresses...
in
Pest CountyPest County is a county in central Hungary. It covers an area of , and has a population of 1,077,300 . It surrounds the national capital Budapest. It shares borders with Slovakia and the Hungarian counties , , , , and . The River Danube flows through the county...
,
HungaryHungary , in English officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest. Hungary is a member of OECD, NATO, EU, V4 and is a Schengen state...
.
Situated north of
BudapestBudapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it serves as the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation center and is considered an important hub in Central Europe. In 2009, Budapest had 1,712,210 inhabitants, down from a mid-1980s...
on the right bank of the
DanubeThe Danube is the longest river in the European Union and Europe's second longest river after the Volga.The river originates in the Black Forest in Germany as the much smaller Brigach and Breg rivers which join at the German town Donaueschingen, after which it is known as the Danube and flows...
in the Danube Bend, Visegrád has a population 1,654 as of 2001. Visegrád is famous for the remains of the Early Renaissance summer
palaceA palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word itself is derived from the Latin name Palātium, for Palatine Hill, one of the seven hills in Rome...
of King
Matthias Corvinus of HungaryMatthias I was King of Hungary and also King of Bohemia...
and the medieval
citadelA citadel is a fortress for protecting a town, sometimes incorporating a castle. The term derives from the same Latin root as the word "city", civis, meaning citizen....
.
Etymology
The name Visegrád (Vyšehrad) is of
SlavicThe Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
origin meaning "the upper castle" or "the upper settlement/town/fortification". In modern
SlovakThe Slovak language , is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages ....
and
CzechCzech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. Czech is similar to and mutually intelligible with Slovak and, to a lesser extent, to Polish and Sorbian. - Official status :Czech is widely...
the spelling is
Vyšehrad. There is a town with a similar name in
Bosnia and HerzegovinaBosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( or (Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian Latin: Bosna i Hercegovina; Serbian Cyrillic: Босна и Херцеговина) is a country in Southeast Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula...
,
VišegradVišegrad is a town and municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is administratively part of the Republika Srpska entity of BiH...
, as well as a small settlement in
TexasTexas is the second-largest U.S. state in both area and population, and the largest state in the contiguous United States.The name had wide usage among native Americans, meaning "friends" or "allies"...
under the Czech spelling, near
HallettsvilleHallettsville is a city in Lavaca County, Texas, United States. The population was 2,345 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Lavaca County. The town is home to the Texas Championship Domino Hall of Fame and also hosts a dominoes tournament every year in January...
. An archaic
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
name for Visegrád is
Plintenburg.
History
Visegrád was first mentioned in 1009 as a county town and the chief town of an
archdeaconA position of archdeacon is a senior position in Anglicanism, Syrian Malabar Nasrani, and in some other Christian denominations, above that of most clergy and below a bishop. In the High Middle Ages it was the most senior diocesan position below a bishop in the Roman Catholic Church...
ry. After the destructive
Mongol invasion of EuropeThe Mongol invasions of Europe, under the leadership of Subutai, centered on the destruction of East Slavic principalities, such as Kiev and Vladimir...
in 1242, the town was rebuilt in a slightly different location to the south. King
Charles I of HungaryCharles I , reigned as King of Hungary...
made Visegrád, his hometown, the royal seat of Hungary in 1325.
In 1335, Charles hosted at Visegrád a
two-month congressThe first Congress of Visegrád was a 1335 summit in Visegrád in which Casimir III of Poland, Charles I of Hungary, and John I of Bohemia formed an anti-Habsburg alliance...
with the
BohemiaBohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands, currently the Czech Republic...
n king, John of Luxembourg, and the Polish king,
Casimir IIICasimir III the Great , last King of Poland from the Piast dynasty , was the son of King Władysław I the Elbow-high and Hedwig of Kalisz.-Royal titles:...
. It was crucial in creating a peace between the three kingdoms and securing an alliance between Poland and Hungary against
HabsburgThe House of Habsburg or Hapsburg was an important royal house of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1452 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian and Spanish Empire and several other countries...
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
.
Another congressThe second Congress of Visegrád was a 1339 summit in Visegrád where it was decided that after the death of Casimir III of Poland, the son of Charles I of Hungary, Louis I of Hungary, would become King of Poland provided that Kazimierz does not have a son....
followed in 1338.
SigismundSigismund was one of the longest ruling Kings of Hungary, reigning for fifty years from 1387 to 1437, and was also Holy Roman Emperor for four years from 1433 until 1437, and the last Emperor of the House of Luxemburg. He was also King of Bohemia from 1419, of Lombardia from 1431, and of Germany...
,
Holy Roman EmperorThe Holy Roman Emperor is a term used by historians to denote a Middle Ages ruler, who as German King had in addition received the title of "Emperor of the Romans" from the Pope of the Holy Roman Church, and after the 16th century, the elected monarch governing the Holy Roman Empire, a Central...
and King of Hungary, moved the royal seat to
BudaBuda is the western part of the Hungarian capital Budapest on the west bank of the Danube. The name Buda takes its name from the name of Bleda the Hun ruler, whose name is also Buda in Hungarian. Roman name for Buda was Aquincum Buda comprises about one-third of Budapest's complete territory and...
between 1405-1408. King
Matthias Corvinus of HungaryMatthias I was King of Hungary and also King of Bohemia...
used Visegrád as a country residence.
Visegrád lost importance after the partition of the Kingdom of Hungary following the
Battle of MohácsThe Battle of Mohács was fought on August 29, 1526 near Mohács, Hungary. In the battle, forces of the Kingdom of Hungary led by King Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia were defeated by forces of the Ottoman Empire led by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent.The Ottoman victory led to the partition of...
in 1526.
In 1991, the leading politicians of
HungaryHungary , in English officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest. Hungary is a member of OECD, NATO, EU, V4 and is a Schengen state...
,
CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
, and
PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
met here to form a periodical forum between these countries, the
Visegrád groupThe Visegrad Group, also called the Visegrad Four or V4, is an alliance of four Central European states – the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia – for the purposes of cooperation and furthering their European integration...
, with an intentional allusion to the meeting centuries earlier in 1335.
Visegrád was granted
town privilegesTown privileges or city rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium.Judicially, a town was distinguished from the surrounding land by means of a charter from the ruling monarch that defined its privileges and laws. Common privileges were related to trading...
in 2000.
Upper Castle
After the Mongol invasion, King
Béla IV of HungaryBéla IV Béla IV Béla IV , King of Hungary (1235-1270). Béla was present, at the age of seven, when a group of conspirators killed his mother, and he could never forgive his father's generosity towards the conspirators' accomplices...
and his wife had a new fortification system constructed in the 1240-50s near the one destroyed earlier. The first part of the new system was the Upper Castle on top of a high hill. The castle was laid out on a triangular ground plan and had three towers at its corners. In the 14th century, at the time of the Angevin kings of Hungary, the castle became a royal residence and was enlarged with a new curtain wall and palace buildings. Around 1400 King Sigismund also had a third curtain wall constructed and enlarged the palace buildings. At the end of the 15th century, King
Matthias CorvinusMatthias I was King of Hungary and also King of Bohemia...
had the interior part of the castle renovated. The Upper Castle also served for the safekeeping of the Hungarian royal insignia between the 14th century and 1526. In 1544 Visegrád was occupied by the
Ottoman EmpireThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
, and, apart from a short period in 1595-1605, it remained in
TurkishThe Ottoman Turks were the subdivision of the Ottoman Muslim Millet that dominated the ruling class of the Ottoman Empire. Reliable information about the early history of the Ottomans is scarce. According to some sources , the leader of the Kayi tribe of the Oguz Turks, Ertugrul, left Persia in...
hands until 1685. The castle was seriously damaged by the Turks and was never used afterwards. The castle is now open to the public for visit.
Lower Castle
The Lower Castle is the part of the fortification system that connects the Upper Castle with the
DanubeThe Danube is the longest river in the European Union and Europe's second longest river after the Volga.The river originates in the Black Forest in Germany as the much smaller Brigach and Breg rivers which join at the German town Donaueschingen, after which it is known as the Danube and flows...
. In its centre rises the Solomon Tower, a large, hexagonal residential tower dating from the 13th century. In the 14th century, new curtain walls were built around the tower. During a Turkish raid in 1544, the southern part of the tower collapsed. Its renovation began only in the 1870s and was finished in the 1960s. At present, the Tower houses exhibitions installed by the King Matthias Museum (Mátyás Király Múzeum) of Visegrád. The exhibitions present the reconstructed Gothic fountains from the Royal Palace, Renaissance sculpture in Visegrád, and the history of Visegrád.
Royal Palace
The first royal house on this site was built by King
Charles I of HungaryCharles I , reigned as King of Hungary...
after 1325. In the second half of the 14th century, this was enlarged into a palace by his son, King
Louis I of HungaryLouis the Great Louis the Great Louis the Great was Apostolic King of Hungary from 1342 and King of Poland from 1370 until his death. (See Titles section)...
. In the last third of the 14th century, King Louis and his successor Sigismund of Luxembourg had the majority of the earlier buildings dismantled and created a new, sumptuous palace complex, the extensive ruins of which are still visible today. The palace complex was laid out on a square ground plan measuring 123 x 123 m. A garden adjoined to it from the north and a
FranciscanThe term Franciscan is commonly used to refer to members of Catholic religious orders, also known as the Orders of Friars Minor, that follow a body of regulations known as "The rule of St. Francis", or a member of one of these orders. As well as Roman Catholic there are also small Old Catholic and...
friary, founded by King Sigismund in 1424, from the south. In the time of Louis I and Sigismund, the palace was the official residence of the kings of Hungary until about 1405-08. Between 1477-84 Matthias Corvinus had the palace complex reconstructed in late
Gothic styleGothic architecture is a style of architecture which flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
. The
Italian RenaissanceThe Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 13th century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe...
architectural styleRenaissance architecture is the architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 17th centuries in different regions of Europe, in which there was a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought and material culture.The Renaissance style places...
was used for decoration, the first time the style appeared in Europe outside
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
. After the Ottoman Turks' siege in 1544 the palace fell into ruins, and by the 18th century it was completely covered by earth. Its excavation began in 1934 and continues today. At present, the reconstructed royal residence building is open to the public, and houses exhibitions on the history of the palace and reconstructed historical interiors.
Sibrik Hill
The ruins of this military camp can be seen outside Visegrád, to the north, on a hill that overlooks the
DanubeThe Danube is the longest river in the European Union and Europe's second longest river after the Volga.The river originates in the Black Forest in Germany as the much smaller Brigach and Breg rivers which join at the German town Donaueschingen, after which it is known as the Danube and flows...
. The camp has a triangular ground plan. It was built in the first half of the 4th century as one of the important fortifications along the
limesA limes was a border defense or delimiting system of Ancient Rome. It marked the boundaries of the Roman Empire....
, the frontier of the
Roman EmpireThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor,...
. Its
praetoriumThe praetorium, also spelled prœtorium or pretorium, was originally the name for the commander's tent or house in a Roman fortification, a castra or castellum....
(the commander's building) was constructed at the end of the 4th century. In the early 5th century, the Roman army abandoned the military camp. In the 10th and 11th centuries, the fortification, rebuilt as a
castleA castle is a defensive structure seen as one of the main symbols of the Middle Ages. The term has a history of scholarly debate surrounding its exact meaning, but it is usually regarded as being distinct from the general terms fort or fortress, in that it describes a residence of a monarch or...
, became a regional centre of the recently formed Hungarian state. "Visegrád" appears for the first time as the name of this regional centre (1009). The fortification was finally destroyed in 1242 by the
Mongol invasion of EuropeThe Mongol invasions of Europe, under the leadership of Subutai, centered on the destruction of East Slavic principalities, such as Kiev and Vladimir...
.
External links