Cserhalmi Zoltán - Kelemen István: Arrabona - Regionális Tudományos Évkönyv 53-56. (Győr, 2018)
Tanulmányok - Oross András: A győri vár és helyőrsége a 17-18. század fordulóján
ARRABONA 2015-2018. 53-56. TANULMÁNYOK The Győr Castle and its garrison at the turn of the 17-18TM centuries There are only a few examples of monographs addressing the history of the different castles in the 16*-17л century in Hungarian historical literature. This study does not aims at reviewing the military history of the Győr Castle (local historical data embedded into the wider country history, building history, sieges or the number of garrison), but it analyses its wider surroundings and its connections with the city laying next to it and its relations with the military superintendent. The winding-up of the former front line after the expulsion of the Turks brought with it major changes into the life of the Győr Superintendence, Győr Castle and its garrison. With laying now farther from the front line the importance of Győr Castle, which had been of primary importance in view of the defence of Vienna for more than 100 years before, now declined comparing to the castles of Buda, Eszék or Arad at the turn of the 17-18* centuries. Using relevant sources this study illustrates the nation-wide tendency: while certain border forts disappeared, others - such as Győr - gained other roles. In the middle of the 17th century extensive fortification works started in the foreground of Győr under Franciscus Wymes’ management which maintained the fame of Győr as one of the strongest castles of the Kingdom of Hungary for decades on. Today Győr is considered by the public as a Baroque city, but this situation might have not occurred without the Turkish Age, since the cityscape and the glorious past dates back to the 16th and 17th centuries. The city gained European fame also in this period, when the peoples of Europe learned its name during the fights against the Turks. After the expulsion of the Turks financial experts saw it clearly that the financial system of the Hungarian and German soldiers of the former frontier line should be reorganised. The former structure should be wound up and placed onto new foundations. The soldiers of the garrison usually received their service pay or at least a percentage of it in the 17th century, but at the end of it they severely had to push for receiving the arrears. The logical decision of the estates of Lower Austria to reduce the support of the former border front further aggravated the situation of the Hungarian soldiers in Győr. The service pay of the German soldiers seems to get sorted at the beginning of the 18th century, because they received cloth from Lower Austria and could count on both the conscription of the Austrian hereditary regions and the Hungarian counties. Finally, it should be mentioned that the questions raised by the study can and must be further analysed to cast more light to the numbers of the garrison, the exact sum of their service pay, their coexistence with the burghers and the powers of the castle commanders. András Oross 168
