Székely Zoltán szerk.: „Megvétetett Győr Vára” : 1598-1998. - Artificium et Historia 4. (Győr, 1998)

SUMMARY

Zu den späteren Denkmälern des Rückeroberungskults gehören ein Theaterstück von Endre Pázmándi Horváth aus dem 19. Jahrhunderts (Kat. H/7.) und die Bilder von Alajos linger aus den 1840ern und von Dezső Pilch aus der ersten Hälfte unseres Jahrhunderts, die man zu der Gattung der historischen Malerei zählt (Kat. H./9., H./10.). Im Jahre 1898 wollte der Rat von Raab eine Statue für Pálffy und Schwarzenberg errichten lassen, aber dieser Plan wurde nicht zustande bringen (Kat. H./1

1., H./12.). SUMMARY The army of the Ottoman Empire spreading to the north and east from the Balkains destroyed the Hungarian troops led by King Lajos II. and occupied the capital town, Buda in 1541. The Hungarian Crown was inherited by the Habsburgs who tried to stop the Turkish forces marching forward in Hungary to protect Austrian lands. On behalf of this they built a border fortress system from the Adriatic Sea to Transylvania whose major strenght was the castle of Győr. Its importance was supported by the fact that the Ottoman troops going against Vienna along the Danube River could simultaneously cross the Rába and Rábca Rivers at Győr. However the medieval fortifications of the town known as "the key of the imperial capital" were not strong enough to hold back the well armed Turkish forces as it was shown by the events of 1529. Since after setting the castle and the town on fire Christopher Lamberg withdrew to the troops of the Sultan marching against Vienna. So in 1537 Ferdinand (Habsburg) I. ordered the enlarging and modernizing of the castle which was only realized in more phases. By 1557 the temporary mud-wooden fortress with six huge bastions was built to surround the town. Soon - though they had changed some of the plans - they started to reconstruct the bastions and to cover the walls with bricks. By the end of the 1560's the works were finished and the castle had 7 lug-bastions and 1 half bastion to protect from the enemy. It also had three gates, the symbolically designed Vienna Gate facing north, the Fehérvári Gate facing south and the Danube Gate facing the Mosoni-Duna River (a branch of the Danube River). The defensiveness of the castle was greatly increased by the fact that from two sides it was surrounded by natural water such as The Rába and Mosoni-Duna Rivers and that there was a wide deep moat along the southern and eastern walls.The works were lead by Francisco Benigno, Bernardo Gabelli and Pietro Ferabosco, who were outstanding Italian experts being respected not only in the Habsburg Empire but all over Europe. The engravings (cat. A./1.) and (cat. A./2.) show the boarder castle in its finished form. The fortress of Győr was considered to be the strongest and most important Hungarian fortress, which became the center of the military headquarters of Győr which was organised against the Turks in 1554 and held together all the fortresses of Northern-Dunántúl. Lower Austria also shared the regular maintenance costs of the fortress as a property of the Austrian provinces, so the captain of Győr was always Austrian while the assistant captain was Hungarian. The role of the fortress was not only to protect the territories behind but also to be the starting point of the military operations against the Turks and to be the meeting center of the imperial troops (cat. A./3.). The second half of the 16th century was a time of peace interrupted by regular fights which was taken by a long period of war from 1593 until 1606. The international forces united against the Turkish attacks and the popery, the Holy Roman Empire, Spain and some Italian states formed the Christian League (cat. CJ2.). After the initial Christian success - that was due to Pállfy Miklós (cat. A./24., A./25.), the most respected Hungarian soldier of the time - the Ottomans took the land and on 31, July, 1594 the troops of Sinan Grand Vizien (cat. A./33.) besieged the fortress of Győr. The commander of the castle was a great fighter called Earl 68