H. Kolba Judit szerk.: Historical Exhibition of the Hungarian National Museum Guide 2 - From the Foundation of the State until the Expulsion of the Ottomans - The history of Hungary in the 11th to 17th centuries (Budapest, 2005)

ROOM 6 - Hungary Split into Three Parts. The Ottoman Occupation (second half of the 16th century-17th century) (Ibolya Gerelyes)

son of 2000 men successfully resisted a Turkish siege lasting five weeks. Győr, shown in an engraving by Gaspar Bouttats, gained extraordinary importance as Vienna's easternmost outpost, and the Hofkriegsrat spent huge sums strengthening it. Only between 1594 and 1598 was it in Turkish hands. The representations of two border-fortresses in key positions, Szigetvár, which protected southern Transdanubia, and Gyula, which watched over the southern part of the region to the east of the River Tisza, were executed by Matthias Zündt. Both fell into Turkish hands at almost the same time (early September 1566). In the engraving of Kalló from 1655, we see a typical example of a fortress rebuilt in New Italian style, with four winged bastions. In the decades following the Mohács defeat, lightly armed hussars gained considerably in importance. In this case we display some of the most characteristic items of equipment used by the warriors of the border region - hussar helmets, shirts of mail, hussar shields, and sabres. The broadsword of György Thúry (d. 1571), captain of Kanizsa, is furnished with an Ottoman blade and may have come to its owner as booty. The Fifteen Years' War (1593-1606), a long struggle in which both sides enjoyed successes, was unable to break the power of the Turkish empire. The exhibition does not present every detail of this, but it does refer to it in several places. With the display of his personal items - his half-armour (Fig. 53) and sabre - the Hungarian hero of the Fifteen Years' War, Count Miklós Pálffy, is the centrepiece. In a prominent place we see the goblet of pure gold (Fig. 54) which Pálffy received from the nobility of Lower Austria in 1598 on the occasion of his recapture of Győr from the Ottoman forces. It was probably made in Prague, and is decorated with groups of enamelled military insignia and coats of arms. VILLAGES AND MARKET-TOWNS IN THE OCCUPIED AREAS The first decades of the Turkish occupation and the repeated skirmishes did not cause lasting damage to the mediaeval network of settlements, and most of the abandoned settlements were quickly repopulated. The population of the villages made an effort to continue its activity as raisers of field crops and breeders of animals. Their success is demonstrated by the fact that in the 1580s Hungary, near the middle, occupied part, was the greatest meat exporter of the world. The ongoing demand for meat in Central Europe exercised a favourable effect on the development of some market-towns in the occupied territories, primarily on the growth of a merchant stratum well provided with capital. The handicrafts production of these towns could, however, cover only basic needs. The coming to a halt of the relatively favourable economic processes and the large-scale devastation of Hungary's mediaeval villages took place at the end of the century, during the Fifteen Years' War. The earlier Turkish wars had lasted one year or two, and had not spread over the whole country. The Fifteen Years' War and the Bocskai uprising which occurred at the same time affected almost the whole territory of the country, imposing a heavy burden upon the inhabitants. In Royal Hungary 15 per cent of the copyholds of bondsmen were abandoned for a long time or for good, and in the occupied territories the inhabitants of a great number of settlements were compelled to flee, sometimes from the Turks, and sometimes from the soldiers of the Habsburg rulers. An engraving from the 17th century representing Drégelypalánk presents, with its houses often of two levels and built close to one another, a somewhat idealized picture of this market-town of modest population. The archaeological research work in