A Herman Ottó Múzeum Évkönyve 6. (1966)

K. VÉGH Katalin: Boldogkő várának feltárása

158 К. VÉGH KATALIN in the first half of XIV. century, when the palace (picture 5, 27, 29—32) and the triangular turret was added to the Oldtower. It is proved by the potteryfragments from the Árpád-period and the first half of XIV. century found in the alluvium of the western half of the palace (e. g. II. t. 1). This modernisation of the castle was done by the Drugeth-family. The cistern was hollowed out at the same time (pict. 5). The under court lying lower than the upper castle, the broken bastion that served as a high defence wall, the semicular gate-turret and the Southern Tower were existing in the second half of XV. century (pict. 5). The Southern Tower was built in the earlier period of the enlargement (pict. 5, 21—22, 25) to which was joined the double fence-wall set into the pile-hole system of the lower court (pict. 5, 11), up to the rock-rise of the later broken bastion. Here was the entrence shown by the trace of the pile-hole that turned up from the two corners of the gate-turret (pict. 5). The southern part of the upper castle was defended by the extension of the southern wall of the Southern Tower, which joined the Oldtower in a rectangular break (pict. 5). Previous to the stone-wall the eastern side of the palace was defended by a fence-wall, the trace of which was cut into the rock. The defence wall (pict. 5, 8—11) the gate-turret (pict. 5—6) the broken bastion (pict. 7, 12—16) and the stone-wall defending the eastern side of the palace (pict. 5, 33) were built later. Presumably the castle got its final form in the XV. century, when George Brankovics, the Serbian despot possessed it. The canon-embrasures on the broken bastion might have been built in the first half of the XVI. century (pict. 5). The tamped, wickerwork earthwall is also the remains of the building in the XVI. century (pict. 5, 13, 17). The making and use of the forge on the broken bastion cut into the rock also began in the XVI. century for producing bronze. A dross-washing basin was also found in the palace (pict. 5). Copper was smelted in the forge and it was alloyed with stannum. We found a bronze-cake, some stannum, coppeiand dross near the forge. Bronze might have been produced in the time of George Bebek, who used it for counterfeiting. The iron-dross and wrought iron proves, that in this very same foundry forged iron was also produced by wrought process previous to smelting bronze or at the same time [120]. The smaller tower was built to the eastern side of the Oldtower of wooden poles in the XVI. century too (pict. 5, 35, 40—44). Its style is taken from pop ular architecture. At this period the dungeon of the castle still existed (pict. 5, 47) and the fence-corridor, the pile-holes of which are still to be seen, was built on the rock-mass then (pict. 1, 5). The area before the gate-turret might have been defended by an outer wall (pict. 4, 50—51) which was connected to the side of the rock before moat „C" (pict. 4, 53). No bigger change took place in the XVI. century, because Boldogkő lay outside the line of Turkish invasion and attacks, and for this reason no rebuilding of greater size seemed to be necessary. The condition of Boldogkő at the end of XVII. century is fixed minutely in the census of 1682 [96]. One of the most important part of the inventary from 1682 is the mentioning of a dry mill in the southern tower, which had been used breaking gunpowder. The mill was set up between 1671—1682