H. Kolba Judit szerk.: Historical Exhibition of the Hungarian National Museum Guide 2 - From the Foundation of the State until the Expulsion of the Ottomans - The history of Hungary in the 11th to 17th centuries (Budapest, 2005)

ROOM 6 - Hungary Split into Three Parts. The Ottoman Occupation (second half of the 16th century-17th century) (Ibolya Gerelyes)

52. Turkish leather mantle, 16th century Hungarian families Turkish carpets, embroideries and gala weapons, all of which also became fashionable in other parts of Europe. To the finest items of the classical period of Ottoman silversmiths art belong the broadswords, set with turquoises and incrusted jade; one of them belonged, according to tradition, to Miklós Zrínyi ( 1620-64), ban (governor) of Croatia and a famous general and poet (Fig. 51), while the other was donated to the Museum at the beginning of the 19th century by Count János Esterházy. This last-mentioned piece came into the possession of the Esterházy family as booty during the struggles in the late 17th century. Seventeenth-century prayer rugs, most of them made in Ushak in western Anatolia, have survived in the greatest number in the Protestant churches of Transylvania, hence their name Transylvanian rugs. The items displayed are made of wool using a knotted technique. An outstanding work of Ottoman textile art is the caparison from the early 17th century made of velvet and embroidered in silver thread. The leather mantle with appliqué and embroidered decoration was made in the early 16th century: according to tradition it was a booty taken by an ancestor of the Almássy family at the Battle of Mohács (Fig. 52). FORMATION OF THE HUNGARIAN AND OTTOMAN DEFENCE LINEOPPOSITE SYSTEMS OF BORDER FORTRESSES The defence against the Ottoman advance was based on the so-called system of border fortresses. This was initially an improvised defence line, often changing and shifting to the north, which became a real system only as late as the second half of the 16th century. The protective zone extending from the shores of the Adriatic to Szatmár, and divided into six zones each under a captain-general from 1556 onwards, was under the control of the Hofkriegsrat in Vienna. In the second half of the 16th century the larger fortresses were rebuilt on basis of the plans by Italian military engineers in the so-called Old Italian and later the New Italian styles. The engravings displayed show Hungary's more important castles and fortresses, and the salient military events. Esztergom, the former ecclesiastical and royal centre lost in 1543, acquired a prominent strategic role as the western outpost of Ottoman Buda and remained in Turkish hands until 1683. The castle of Eger, called the gateway to Upper Hungary, is shown on an engraving from the early 17th century by an unknown master. The castle held out against Ottoman attacks until 1596. In 1552, under its commander István Dobó, the Hungarian garri-