A Herman Ottó Múzeum Évkönyve 19. (1980)
SÁNDORFI György: Motte típusú várak a történeti Borsod vármegyében
40 SÁNDORFI GYÖRGY castles was carried out in the mountains, thus no mottes, "Burghügel"s from the historical territory of Hungary in Burgenland (H. P. Schad'n): Pomogy (Pamhagen), Pecsenyéd (Pötsching), Fraknóváralja (Fortchtenau), Németkeresztúr (Deutschkreuz), Dörfel (Dörfl); in the present South-Slovakia (A. Fiala-A. Habovstiak-T. Stefanovicova) : Kéménd (Kamenin), Berencs (Branc), Veszele (Vészeié), Karkóc (Trakovice). The foreign technical literature deals also with the classification of the mottes. H. P. Schad'n classifies them according to the form of the hill, while Miiller-Wille considers the height of the hills. We consider the territory inside the motte's ditch (defence territory) and the territory of the motte, i.e. the upper level of the hill, more important. The first informs about the largest possible number of people defending the motte and residing in it ; the latter gives information about the largeness of the building on the top of the hill. (The comparison of the geometrical data of the five Hungarian mottes and two ones from the Rhein area is given in Table 1.) Kisgyör—Halom vár, Miskolc— Leányvár The two castles being close to each other, and being similar in many features are described and evaluated together. Both of them are ill settled from the aspect of defence. They are situated on the middle of a flat ridge, being easily sieged. The earth from the ditches was piled up on the highest point of the ridge. There are big holes in the centre of both mottes which are of no natural origin. The defence territory is much larger than that of the average ones. The builders left an entrance road in the ditches of both mottes as proved by the detailed investigations. Leányvár was excavated by T. Kemenczei in 1970, who proved that the castle had never been inhabited. The holes on the mottes show that the tower was not on the top of the hill in either case, but on the original level, then it was surrounded with the earth from the ditches. The door of the tower opened in the side of the hill. The hole is the remnant of the tower, which must have been 7x7 metres of ground plan. The data of the two castles can be summed up in the followings: 1. They both are early types, flourishing in West-Europe in the 9th-13th cc, in CentralEurope in the 11th —14th cc. 2. They were planned to accept many people. 3. Their building needed many hands, thus the builders ruled over great population. 4. The builder of both mottes is identical, who sticked to the usual forms. 5. The excavation and investigation of the entrance routs detected neither durational inhabitation nor siege. Kisgyőr and its vicinity belonged to the estate of the bishopric of Eger in 1261. The bishop of Eger between 1243—1275 was Lambert of Schafnaburg, who came from the present Aschaffenburg (West-Germany), near the Rhein area. After the Tartarian invasion Lambert settled people, possibly also from his motherland, in his bishopric, who, together with the Hungarians feared the return of the Tartarians. Thus Leányvár and Halomvár of "peoples' castle" type, similar to those in Austria also connected with the German settlers, can be attached to Lambert and the German settlement. They must have been built in the years right after the Tartarian invasion.
