Agria 40. (Az Egri Múzeum Évkönyve - Annales Musei Agriensis, 2004)
Nagy Géza Balázs: 1580 előtti adatok az egri püspöki vár történetéhez
Géza Balázs Nagy Pre1850 Data Concerning the Eger 's Episcopal Castle One of the most well-known events in the history of Eger Castle is the successful defence of the castle by a garrison of two thousand in the face of numerically superior Turkish force, and the holding of what was a strategically important castle. The site, however, had provided the Diocese of Eger with its seat for a good five hundred years, up until the second half of the 16 th century, meaning that during the course of its architectural history the complex had for the most part developed according to the buildings' administrative and ecclesiastical needs, with strategic and defensive considerations only becoming a major consideration from the beginning of the 16 th century. This study, written on the occasion of the one thousandth anniversary of the foundation of the Diocese of Eger, looks at some of the written sources referring to the period when the castle was an ecclesiastical, secular and cultural centre. The first section of the paper looks at the one-time altars at the cathedral lying within the castle precincts. The priests in possession of one living - according to the documents surviving from the period - played a significant role in the so-called administrative activities, which would have (also) included the notarial tasks within the Kingdom of Hungary. Several of the incomes of the altars came from houses situated in the castle precincts. It is information like this which can help usdiscover how the remains one can now see in the castle once functioned. The second section deals with the older and more recent written and archaeological sources dealing with life in one of the castle's most compact architectural units in the vicinity of the so-called northern wall. Although it is an area which has only partially been excavated there is enough information in the sources to prove that at the beginning of the 16th century the castle was more of a town than a fortress. During the course of the data collection relating to the present study we came across the names of three people who have not yet appeared on the list of castle defenders during the siege of 1552. It is this data, which forms a completely separate unit, forming the third part of this study. 186
