A Hajdú-Bihar Megyei Levéltár évkönyve 19. 1992 (Debrecen, 1992)
Balogh István tiszteletére - Módy György: Földesúri kúriák és várkastély Debrecenben
SQUIRE’S MANSIONS AND CASTLE IN DEBRECEN György Módy There were only two buildings standing out from the picture of a medieval town: the church and the squire’s mansion. The latter was important especially in cases when it was made a permanent residence like in Debrecen in the 13th and 14th centuries. The two branches of the Debrbeceni family both had their own mansion, as it is evidenced by a charter from 1359. The mansion of palatine Dózsa’s line was probably transformed into a manor-house with a palisade and moat around the year 1310. From 1317 on Dózsa was high dignitary of the country. He effectuated enlargement and fortification of the building where he exercised his judicial activities as well. Kings Charles Robert and Louis I (the Great) then queen Maria and king Sigismund also took up their quarters there when visiting. According to data from the 14th century this building was the old mansion or castle („vetus curia”, „vetus castellum”). It can be placed South-East of St Andrew’s Church in the area confined by the present Calvin square, Csapó and Vár streets. The mansion of Jakab Péterfia’s line is believed to have been in the area of the present Mester street. This line might have died out with his son since there is no mention of its mansion in the documents from the 15th and 16th centuries. Dózsa’s line died out on the spear side in 1404 but László Debreceni’s daughters were allowed to use the manor-house for a while afterwards. King Sigismund installed the salt office there. From 1411 the Serbian despots Lazarevics and Brankovics were owners of the Debrecen estate. When staying in town, they used the manor-house as their temporary residence. In 1449 János Hunyadi became proprietor of the town. His widow, Erzsébet Szilágyi resided in the castle for several longer periods. Her grandson, János Corvin and the successive proprietor, János Szapolyai, who acquired the estate in the autumn of 1509 stayed there only occasionally. After 1536 the squire of Debrecen was Bálint Török of Enying, whose wife lived mainly in the Debrecen castle after the autumn of 1547. Her sons, János and Ferenc also resided here for considerable periods after their mother’s death (in 1551?). They even had another building constructed on the extensive plot belonging) to the old castle. This new mansion („nova curia”), mentioned in 1562 can only be located here, since István Balogh’s research has shown that only two nobleman’s estates were recorded in 16th-century Debrecen; that of the town’s squire and Ispán Albert Tar’s-then his descendants’-who was situated on both corners of the present Simonffy stereet. The ancient manor-house, which had never been a real castle was burnt down by Ferdinand I’s mercenaries in 1565. It has never been rebuilt. The estate itself was donated to the town by Sigismund Báthori, Prince of Transylvania, in 1592. 57
