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

SUMMARY

Ferdinand Hardegg (cat. A./28.) who was the leader of nearly 7.000 Hungarian, German and Italian sodiers. North of the town in Szigetköz there was the army of 50.000 people of Archduke Matthias (cat. A./27.) which had a direct connection to the castle through the pontoom bridge on the Mosoni-Duna River. After the failed attempt of 15, August (cat. A./5.) Pasha Sinan - while he was shooting at the fortress - crossed the river to Szigetköz on 8, September, and the imperial troops ran away in an unorganized way. The guards left alone tried to do their best to defend themselves and the fortress but being in a hopeless situation they finally gave in, and gave "the bastion of protection of the whole Christianity - especially of Austria and the Hungaian Crown" to the Turks (cat. A./4.). Earl Hardegg who was chosen as a scapegoat was courtmartialled and executed in Vienna on 15, June, 1595 (cat. A./29.). The imperial supreme command didn't give up the idea of recapturing Győr and they made their first attempt in September, 1597. After reoccupying Pápa (cat. A./

19.), the Christian army of Archduke Miksa moved against Győr and started to besiege it. However by the approach of the Turkish relief troops the imperial forces raised a siege and left. Because of the failure of the siege the emperor decided to blow up the gates using gun powder and to make a surprise attack on the town in order to get it back. The castle of Tata was gained back by the Chrisrians in the same way on 21 March, 1597. (cat. A./20.). Commander Adoíf von Schwarzenberg (cat. A./26.) and Earl Pálffy Miklós Commander-in-Chief were in charge of the realization of the plan. The imperial troops approached the castle without having anyone realizing them. They sent a smaller cart-caravan to Fehérvári Gate as if some food supply had arrived. Five cavalrymen who dressed up as spahis and spoke fluent Turkish took the attention of the guards while the military engineers took the petards (cat. D./24.) off the carts. First they broke in the latticed gate of the bridge above the moat then they exploded the iron-bound castle gate. Immediately the imperial troops got into the town and after a long and bloody fight they occupied it. The commander of the castle was killed too. His head was tucked onto the Hungarian-bastion. Some of the Turkish soldiers escaped to the Bishop's Tower, the rest hid in Sainthill Bastion. The latter ones being so desperate exploded the gun powder which was stored there and blew up the whole bastion (cat. A./6. - 16.). The recapture of Győr resulted a big international echo as it was shown by several illustrated papers, pamphlets dealing with current issues (cat. B./1. - 9.) and medals considered to be an effective carriers of contemporary propaganda (cat. C./3. 9.). On 25 April according to the order of Governor Ruprecht Stotzinger they carved the following words into the crosses and statues by the road in the provinces of Lower Austria: "SAG GOTT DEM HERRN LOB UND DANK/DAS RAAB IST GEKOMMEN CHRISTEN HAND" (cat. H./2.). The province just escaped from the direct Turkish rule. As a sign of their gratitude the noble class of the province gave Pálffy Miklós a mannerist tankard as a precious symbol of the masterpiece of goldsmith craft (cat. E./7.). Since the early 1600's the community of burgeois of Győr had celebrated the day of the reoccupiation of the town with a procession in which they gave a speech in front of the painted portrays of the two heroes Pálffy and Schwarzenberg (cat. H./3., H./4.). The speeches were in Hungarian to Hungarian citizens and in German to German citizens. One of Hungarian speeches was printed in 1759. (cat. H./5.). The play written by Pázmándy Horváth Endre (cat. H./7.) in the 1800's belongs to the later memorials of the cult of the reoccupation. So do the historical paintings of Unger Alajos and Pilch Dezső (cat. H./9., H./10.). These two are from the 1840's and the first part of the 20th century. In 1898 the town also tried to put up a statue for the heroes of Győr but they never succeeded (cat. H./1

1., H./12.). 69