Palla Ákos szerk.: Az Országos Orvostörténeti Könyvtár közleményei 24. (Budapest, 1962)

The deads of the battle of Mohács

For a whole century, until 1924, it was generally believed that the village Földvár, which had been entirely destroyed during the fight but partly rebuilt and inhabited later for a few decades was situated on the spot where to-day the farm buildings of Sátorhely are standing. Whilst the preparations for the 400

th annivesary of the battle of Mohács were in progress, the historiographer Mr. Endre Gergely, as well as Mr. Barna Halmy, non-professional writer of military history, both discovered at about the same time that this does not conform with Brodarics' description: Sátorhely is not situated on -the erge of the range of hills but is the centre of the plain. Working independently from each other but with almost identical arguments both tried to locate the village mentioned by Brodarich south-southswest of to-day's village Majs - in a not yet exactly limited zone. The gist of their statement was accepted by Jenő Gyalokay, official historian of the anniversary above mentioned/' In his excellent work Gyalokay gives a detailed description of the battle, based on Brodarics' data and also on facts unearthed in medieval lawsuits about landed property. On the whole, he agrees with Gergely as to the situation of the village Földvár, which seemed to have entirely vanished from the earth's surface. The location of this village is the most important single item in the exact determination of the battlefuel d and the line occupied by the respective armies. Historians as well as writers of military history maintained since the end of last century that no definite opinion can be stated in chese matters without archaeology too having its say. In this field, however, nothing happened for quite a long time. In 1923 enthusiastic amateurs started a search around the mouth of the river Csele in which King Lajos was drowned. Much later and for different reasons the Hungarian National Museum started important diggings in this area in order to preserve centain finds. In the course of this work the cemetaries as well as remains of settlements in the community of Csele were discovered, dating from Chieftain Árpád's time and from the XVI

th century. In 1924 and 1925 Endre Gergely extended his search for the massgraves of the great battle as far as the Törökdomb and its surroundings, i. e. to the western edge of the plain but without any success.