Veres Gábor - Berecz Mátyás (szerk.): Hagyomás és megújulás - Életpályák és társadalmi mobilitás a végváriak körében - Studia Agriensia 27. (Eger, 2008)

FELD ISTVÁN: Ágyúvédőművek a 16. század első fele erődítményépítészetében

István Feld

ARTILLERY DEFENCES IN MILITARY ARCHITECTURE DURING THE FIRST HALF OF THE

16TH CENTURY

Fallacies, Issues, Further Research

Hungarian military and historical researchers have yet to analyse in any detail the period prior to that dominated by the so-called Italian bastion system. Had they done so researchers would have seen how firearms were combined with military defences during the first half of the 16th century. Thus far the tendency has been to either discount or overemphasize the role of fortress construction in the period leading up to the Battle of Mohács (1526) and in the decades that followed. The present study provides a summary of the views that exist relating to the usage and spread of three fortification elements: the barbican, the rondella and the cannon tower. With the aid of concrete examples we point to further possible avenues of research, particularly within the fields of archaeology and documentary analysis, while at the same time drawing attention to the problems associated with the use of rigid terminologies and typologies. By way of a summary we conclude that thanks primarily to the regular systems of cannon towers, built and financed by some the country’s foremost nobles, Hungary witnessed the construction of up-to-date fortresses as early as the 1530s and 1540s comparable with the emerging bastion systems that were to dominate later.

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