Hungary’s best-preserved fortress presumably was built before the mid-13th century since King Béla IV lived here for a while during the Mongolian invasion (1241-1242). It was extended several times during successive centuries.
Sümeg Castle is a Hungarian castle built on sümeg’s bald hill. The oldest part was constructed in around 1260. The castle of Sümeg was built from 1262 through different eras until the episcopate of Pál Széchenyi in the 17th century. In the 15th century, the castle was fortified, and the second of two towers was built.In 1552, in response to the capture of Veszprém by the Turks, the castles was rebuilt and fortified to serve as a frontier fortress. The Rákóczi’s troop occupied the castle in 1705. In 1709 the Austrians recaptured it, and burned it down a few years later.125 metres long and 80 metres wide, the castle is oriented north to south and has an irregular polygonal shape. After entering the outer castle gates, the walled path leads to the internal gatehouse that opens onto the courtyard.
Outside the gate of the keep is a wolf pit which once had a
drawbridge over it. Some of the buildings, such as the Köves Bastion in the
north (built by Bishop Köves in 1554) and the Old Tower, have been covered
over. Looking down towards Court Magistrate Square (Udvarbíró tér) from the
gatehouse, see the ruins of the strangely named Fort Haversack (Tarisznya-vár).
This was not a separate fortress but a tower that probably protected the
entrance to the town.
The conical shaped, limestone hill looked to have been created
by nature as a home for Sumeg castle. In truth the castle was built in the 13th
century following the Mongol destruction of a large majority of Hungary.
Hilltop castles would act as secure fortresses where the population would be
safe in the event of another invasion.
Sumeg Castle is one of the best examples of the many such castles that
once dotted Hungarian hilltops. Its position turned out to be formidable enough
that the Ottoman Turks never came close to conquering it. Only after the
Austrians occupied western Hungary in the wake of Ferenc Rákóczi’s failed War
of Independence at the start of the 18th century was the castle partially
destroyed by fire. The ruins were vast enough that much of it could be rebuilt.
The short history of Sümeg [Translation]
The history of the town can be traced to the prehistoric age. Archeological excavations prove that the area was inhabited at that time. While exploring a flint-stone mine on Mogyorósdomb south of Sümeg, archeologists found a lot of personal belongings, as well as tools and other findings dated back to the New Stone Age. The brightest period in the prehistory of Sümeg was the so-called Hallstatt culture int he late Bronze and early Iron Ages. Relics of the time indicate that bronze smithery flourished. Roman authority is marked by many fragments of brick as well as earthen vessel
The Castle has a dominant role in town development and
history. It was built by order of King Béla IV stimulating of construction of fortresses
after the Mongol invasion. Town and castle were interdependent at that time.
Events in the Castle had a great effect on the town of Sümeg at the foot of the
hill. The administrative and supervision centre of the bishopric had been Erek,
a nearby village, up to the early 14th century but then, with the increasing
significance of the Castle in defence, in the centre was being put over to
Sümeg. The castles of Sümeg and Veszrpém guarded over most of the estete.
After the death of the Hungarian king Mátyás, Sümeg as well
as Veszprém was put in the hands of the pretender Miksa von Habsburg. His rule,
however, could not last long as the intruders were pushed out from Transdanubia
very soon. The castles of Sümeg and Nagyvázsony were retaken by Pál Kinizsi who
put them under the control of King Ulászló II.
Due to the Turkish expansion, after the fall of
Székesfehérvár in 1543 Sümeg became a border fortress just like some other
castles int he Lake Balaton area. In the following decades town population significantly
decreased, and was unprotected against the Turks but the Castle remained
Hungarian hands. From the middle of 16th
century on, the emperor’s army was leading Sümeg into difficulties, and things
were made even worse by the Fifteen Years’ War and Bocskai’s War of
Independence. During those battles the Castle changed hands several times.
In 1656-58, bishop György Széchenyi enclosed the town within
strong walls provided with watchtowers so that Sümeg became the only safe and
well-protected town in the comitat of Zala for a long time. As a result, Sümeg
could grow into a busy town: trade was booming, markets become famous and the
products of its pottery were much in demand. As the episcopal seat in the
diocese of Veszprém, it was one of the most important centres of the
Transdanubian Counter-Reformation. In and around 1650 bishop Széchenyi settled
Franciscan monks there.
Turkish troops withdrawing from the battle of Szentgotthárd
in 1664 hindered the development of Sümeg for a long time. Unable to take the
Castle, while marching off, they set the town aflame. The fire caused great damages
in the Castle itself but it survived, the town recovered and began to grow
again. In 1700, however, there was another great fire and, in addition to the
Franciscan monastery and the Episcopal Palace, only four stone houses remained.
One of the most important fortresses in Transdanubia, the
Castle of Sümeg was seized by the army of Ferenc Rákóczi in 1705, but the
emperor’s troops led by general Heistler Sibert retook it in July, 1709. In the
summer of 1713, castle buildings was burnt down by the Austrians under colour
of a tactical exercise, actually to prevent the Hungarians from using it in
case of an other uprising.
Reconstruction of the town was destroyed in the bottle and
fire started thereafter, and a typical townscape developed in consequence of
the building acts passed. Houses in the walled inner town had to be built of
stone, so the central district was populated by the episcopal household,
manorial officials and local nobles. The less well-to-do farmers and craftsmen
with no privileges were forced to leave downtown and build their log and adobe
houses on the outskirts.
At the time of the bishop Márton Padányi Bíró (1745-1762)
the town continued to develop. The most important creation in work of art and
architecture is due to his activity. He made Sümeg a spiritual centre of Catholicism
counteracting the Protestantism of Pápa. With a wide-ranging religious,
political, social and sponsoring activity, he was a leading figure of the
Hungarian baroque period and a devout representative of Counter-Reformation. In
and around Sümeg he had a number of dwelling houses, farm buildings, a new
parish church and a baroque episcopal palace built.
With craftsmen and merchants growing in number, Sümeg became a market-town of the handicraft trade. There was a hospital as well as pharmacy, a stage-coach stopping place and salt-house. After the death of bishop Bíró the development of the town came to another halt, the more so as a decree of Maria Theresa on statue labour and fee estate made different between the bishop as landowner and the market-town more manifest.
In the last quarter of the century, life became more
difficult in Sümeg because of epidemics and fire. French occupation during the
Napoleon Wars an 1809 also serious difficulties.
The town was being relieved of its burden from the 1820s on,
so agriculture started to develop and craftsmen as well as merchants grew in
number. Middle classes were being born. Potters became famous throughout the
century, and craftsmen forming tanner, cobbler, button-maker as well as cooper
guilds were also well-known.
Social life in the noble central district was crucial for town development. From 1804 on, townsfolk as well as people from the neighbourhood were gathering around the poet Sándor Kisfaludy’s (1772-1844) group of intellectual and friends. This kind of association of the nobility was broken up the political fights of the so-called reform period in the 1840s, and citizens led by Vince Ramasetter came to its place. Having got rid of the authority of the landlords in 1848, the town achieved an aim of centuries long struggle. In the infamous are of Alexander Bach, Sümeg was made a residence of the comitat and district court, one of the centre of administration in the area, but executive power was in the hands of the Austrian army stationed in town. After the compromise of 1867, in contrast to the rapid industrial and agricultural development of the country, Sümeg started to decline. Its blue dying industry came to an end, the tannery burnt down, the reputation of local wine and its trade dropped, the citizens and the nobles grew poor. Its town title was lost in 1907, and regained on 1 January, 1984.
THE MONUMENTS OF SÜMEG
Town centre is at the south-western bottom of the Castle Hill. Townscape can be traced back to the 17th century. Division into parts still distinguishable began with the building of the town walls.The aspect of the noblemen’s former town centre are nominated by the Franciscan church an monastery as well as by the surviving mansions of the nobility. The winding streets and rural houses of the so-called Tokaj, east of the Castle Hill, were built by landless villeins in the second half of the 17th century. A third part of the town is formed by the streets between the centre and the parish church. From the 1800s, we can find here houses of traders and craftsmen as well as those noblemen and citizens int he late baroque style.
In the slope west of the Paris church, we can see a quarter called Thirteentown and environs, the poorest at one time. The strongest mark of the townscape has been left by 18th century baroque architecture. The Episcopal Palace, the Parish Church, the farm buildings and dwelling houses of the estate as well as many houses of nobility and citizens were built at that time. It was the time when the aspect of today’s town centre of one time nobility took shape. The classicist and eclectic buildings of the 19th century get on well with the baroque environment.
