Gyöngyössy Márton (szerk.): Perspectives on the Past. Major Excavations in County Pest (Szentendre, 2008)
The exact construction date of castle with the cathedral of the Vác episcopate (founded in the 11th century) is not known. The castellan of Vác is first mentioned in 1465. The stronghold (and the town) changed hands between Ferdinand I of the Habsburg House and János Szapolyai rather often in the years after the fateful Battle of Mohács in 1526, until it was finally occupied by the Turkish forces in 1544. Although the Christian forces recaptured the town from time to time during the Ottoman period, these were but brief interludes. The Turkish dominion, interspersed with countless assaults and sieges, lasted until around 1685. The Franciscan monastery and church built in the early 1700s lay in the area of the former castle, whose remains had been largely demolished by then. The investigation of the castle was begun after World War 2. The excavations in the area of the medieval castle begun in 1962 lasted for two years and were resumed on a regular basis between 1980 and 2003. Sections of the northeastern and south-eastern polygonal bastions of the Ottoman period stronghold were uncovered, together with a corner of the Árpádian Age episcopal palace in the eastern part of the Franciscan monastery’s inner courtyard and Ottoman period wall sections in the courtyard’s south-eastern part. Various architectural periods of the curtain walls and the foundations of various buildings were uncovered in the 1980s in the western part of the castle hill facing the Danube. The wall sections by the monastery’s south-eastern corner and the eastern half of the southern fagade had probably represented the remains of a row of chapels along the one-time cathedral’s southern part. Future investigations will no doubt enrich our knowledge of the castle with additional details. • Sarolta Tettamanti and Zoltán Batizi Vác Castle
