Gulyás Katalin et al. (szerk.): Tisicum - A Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok Megyei Múzeumok Évkönyve 24. (Szolnok, 2015)
Történettudomány - Kertész Róbert: A középkor végi Szolnok és méltatlanul elfeledett földesura: Pálóci Imre
TISICUM XXIV. - TÖRTÉNETTUDOMÁNY RÖVIDÍTÉSEK Anjou-oklt. Vili. = Anjou-kori oklevéltár. Documenta res Hungaricas tempore regum Andegavensium illustrantia Vili. 1324. (szerk.: BLAZOVICH László) Budapest-Szeged. 1993. Anjou-oklt. IX. = Anjou-kori oklevéltár. Documenta res Hungaricas tempore regum Andegavensium illustrantia IX. 1325. (szerk.: GÉCZI Lajos) Budapest-Szeged. 1997. Anjou-oklt. XXIII. = Anjou-kori oklevéltár. Documenta res Hungaricas tempore regum Andegavensium illustrantia XXIII. 1339. (szerk.: PITI Ferenc) Budapest-Szeged. 1999. Anjou-oklt. XXXI. = Anjou-kori oklevéltár. Documenta res Hungaricas tempore regum Andegavensium illustrantia XXXI. 1347. (szerk.: SEBŐK Ferenc) Budapest-Szeged. 2007. MNL OL, DL = Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár Országos Levéltára, Diplomatikai Levéltár. MRT 7. = Magyarország Régészeti Topográfiája 7. (főszerk.: GEREVICH László). Pest megye régészeti topográfiája. A budai és szentendrei járás (XIII/1.) (szerk.: TORMA István) Budapest. 1986. Zsigmond-oklt. II/2. = Zsigmondkori Oklevéltár II. (1400-1410). Második rész (1407-1410). Összeállította: MÁLYUSZ Elemér. Budapest. 1958. Róbert Kertész An undeservingly forgotten landowner of Szolnok from the Late Middle Ages: Imre Pálóci There are very few historical and archaeological sources available from the Middle Ages of Szolnok. Therefore we are unable to prove the vast majority of our statements, we largely rely on assumptions. Dating back to the 1020’s and 30’s the earliest, the centre of bailiff ship and the county can be identified in the eastern part of the castle-island. The garrison of approximately 3.2 hectares situated on an irregular rectangle, probably fortified with soil and wooden earthworks was one of the biggest bailiff castles of the Kingdom of Hungary. The small, rural style settlement was located inside the trenches of the bailiff castle, or maybe on the far side of the eastern branch of the river Zagyva, around the Roman-style one- nave church, probably called Saint Michael. The county seat fell victim of the Mongol Invasion in 1241, however, it did not remaiun unpopulated for a long period of time since after the invasion, settlers were moved here who established themselves on the left bank of the western Zagyva branch, which had been uninhabited or scarcely populated before. They left the earthworks, that was unable to fulfil its functions, untouched until the autumn of 1550, but they rebuilt the parish church near the river, and it continued operating as a funeral chapel. In the centre of the relocated settlement, on the northern part of the market square that was cut through by the Pest-Debrecen main communication road, the first stone church of Szolnok was erected at the turn of the 13th and 14th century in Roman style. Archive documents referred to the settlement as a village until the beginning of the 15th century, however the main stations of growth at the end of the first third of the century were hallmarked by the donation of the rank and privileges of market-town (1422,1429). The development of the seat of Outer-Szolnok county did not come to a halt after that, mainly because between 1438 and 1526, for almost 90 years the area was owned by a single noble family, the Pálócis. Up to now, nothing has been revealed about the presence and the activities of the baron family in Szolnok; however, we have good reason to assume that one of them, Imre Pálóci - who later on became the cup-bearer and then the chief stable-man of King Mathias - carried out outstanding ‘investments’ of representative nature here in the 1470’s. The most significant constructions in the market place of the town were mainly related to him: the erection of an imposing (40x20 metres), probably three-aisle, Gothic style hall church, in which the shrine could be walked around, on the location and using the stones of the previous Roman style church after it had been pulled down. In the vicinity of the new parish church, in the southern part of the market-place, upon the initiative of the chief stableman, a manor house was built, which supposedly served as the centre of the Pálóci estate of the lands scattered across the county, at the same time the landowner and his family members probably also stayed there during their visits. The Gothic style church and the manor house were the only building that were made of stone in the county seat. When the market place building was completed, they rose above the Szolnok, which had reached the criteria of the rank of a town for the first time during its existence of 500 years. It was considered to be the second largest centre of Outer-Szolnok county after Tur/Nagytur (Mezőtúr) with a population of approximately 750-800. So the idea favoured by several experts which regarded Szolnok a small and insignificant country town in comparison with other neighbouring settlements, such as Varsány/Tiszavarsány; on the contrary: the opposite seems to be correct. Imre Pálóci did not merely had several buildings erected in Szolnok, but he was buried here after he passed away in 1483. His tombstone was place in the Gothic church that he had established. In choosing his burial place, a significant consideration might have been the fact that he had been the feudal lord of this ecclesiastical institution. A fragment of his gravestone carved from good quality red marble covered a coffin-shaped tomb was unearthed on the castle island. This unique piece of stonemasonry - completed in the 1480’s in a workshop in Buda and later transported to the market town on the bank of the Tisza - plays a key role both in local history and the chronology of tombstones in the late Middle Ages in Hungary. However, the prosperity of Szolnok did not prove to be long lasting. The favourable processes came to a halt after this branch of the family died out, and after the last man of the Pálóci family, Antal, who was single and had no children, was killed in the battle of Mohács, they fell into pieces. In the following decades, our settlement was merely a shadow of its prosperous self, and for the Osman invasion of 1552 it had to pay a hefty price: for 133 years it became separated from the remaining of the mother country. Translated by Dezső Darabont 292
