The history of Kőszeg

Archaeological findings from outside the city include various objects from the prehistoric times and from the Bronze Age. The most notable ones of these are perharps those 44 bronze sickles uncovered near the Óház ( Old House ) in 1841. In the nearly times it was not the city itself but rather the Saint Vid Chapel to attract visitors, but the Middle Ages brought along plenty of activity in Kőszeg as well. Some say that it was somewhere around the city, called castellum Guntionis at the time, that the Frankish and the Avar troops fought a battle in 802. The first Hungarian conquerors settled down in the area and established a significant iron-working site near Kőszegfalva. The region soon gained military importance when the Germans repeatedly threatened the country from the 12 th-13 th century onwards. There were more and more stone forts built in the Kőszeg Mountains, one of them erected on Óház, known as Felsővár ( Upper Castle ). It is still unknown when exactly it was built but it is certain it already existed at the time of the Tartar invasion, as King of Hungary Béla IV led an offensive to recapture it from the Prince of Austria. To commemorate This event the name of the city castum Kuszug was mentoined in a dokument issued in 1248. In the second half of the 13 th century the Németújvári family chose Kőszeg as their seat, and soon after Henry and his son Ivan engaged in building constructions. They built their new fortress " Alsóvár " ( bottom house ) on an area near the small river Gyöngyös, which also served representative purposes. They were the actual founders of the city of Kőszeg, which they surrounded with solid stone walls. The first settlers were mostly Germans, who were granted various freedoms and privileges. The Kőszegi family, as Henry and his successors started to call themselves, were busy to extend their lands and estates. For this reason they came into personal conflict with Albert I Prince of Austria and Styria, who seized their fortresses, including Kőszeg, in 1289, the year when the town's Franciscan cluster also fell victim of the clashes. It was Andrew II who finally recaptured the fortresses in 1291. The successors of the family were not any better Than their ancestor Ivan, who was often referred to as lupus repax ( predator wolf ) because of his quarrelsome nature. In 1327 King Charles Robert confiscated the majotity of their forts in order to displace them from the western borders, and gave them estates in the middle of the country. Next year, in 1328, the king granted the city of Kőszeg royal privileges, confirmed the freedoms received from the Kőszegis, and awarded other rights, including municipality right and the right of holding markets. Later the citizens were also permitted to sell wine produced in the cross-border vicinity. Althought the king had once made a pledge that the city will always be under royal supervision, King Sigismund broke this promise by giving Kőszeg and its related farms and estates to to palatine Miklós Garai as a present. The new proprietor confirmed the town's privileges, and launched extensive building constructions ( e.g. St. James Church ). Year 1445 brought another change in the life of Kőszeg as Frederick III conguered it, althought in the name of Ladislas IV. It was Frederick who presented the city with a coatof arms Kőszeg still uses. Thought Kimg Matthias recaptured Kőszeg in 1483, after his death the city turneda pawn estate again, right until 1647, when Ferdinand III decided to place it back under the supremacy of the Hungarian crown. In 1532, when Miklós Jurisics was commander of the fortress, the Turks attacked Kőszeg on their way to conquer Vienna. Between 5 and 30 August, the Turks led 19 fierce attacks ( under Ottoman emperor Suleiman's personal supervision ) but the little fortress resisted with only a handful of defenders including some soldiers, civilians, and serfs who found shelter among the castle's walls. After the last offensive, the uprising of the ravenous Turkish Janissary convinced the Grand Vizier Ibrahim they should surrender. According to legends, the very last Turkish battalion left the area at 11 a.m., hence have the bells of the town rung at this time of the day since 1777. In order to rebuiltd the city from its rubbles Ferdinand I offered the citizens tax exemption and a few other privileges. The fortress of Kőszeg gained its appearance, as we known it today, as a result of those reconstruction works. The following two centuries will always be remembered as the golden times of the city,as it became an important stop on the long distance trade routes between Vienna and the Adriatic, a newly established route due to the Turkish invasion. This gave boost to the city's economy because traditional products, as wine - the most significant commodity throughout the Middle Ages - could be sold to a greater circle of customers. By the end of the 16 th century, tradesmen organised into guilds started to work not only for the surrounding communities but also for places further away. This prosperity, and the strong relationship with far away lands, is very well reflecred on the Renaissance houses standing on Jurisics Square. During the Reformation, the overwhelming majority of the city turned protestant although they formed many small communities according to their mother tounge. The previously mentoined St. James church was given to the Germans, so the Hungarians resolved to built their own new church between 1615 and 1618. This was named the Hungarian Church, and when people converted back to catholicism, they renamed it as St. Imre Church. During the time of the Bocskai, and the Bethlem uprisings, the noble holders of the fortress ( the Nádasdy and the Széchys ) supported the rebels but the citizens were too frightened of the Emperor's revenge to follow suit. This disagreement caused trouble mainly in the Hungarian and German outskirts, and the city itself changed hands quite a few times during these war years. It was in 1648 that the city was eventually returned to Hungary and was the only town in Vas County to receive the free royal status with the right to send delegates to the national assembly. In the following rough years, theHabsburg Court in Vienna did its utmost to spread the tenets of Counter Reformation, to which the city could only resist until 1670. Kőszeg finally had to consent to the settling down of the Jesuits, as a punishment for its involvement in the Wesselényi-conspiracy. It was the Jesuits who took charge over the catholic grammar school ( today Miklós Jurisics Secondary Grammar School ) founded by György Széchényi in 1677. After Ferenc Rákóczi's war of independence, the city gradually lost its significance. And althought it was not quite apparent from the townscape, it was the age of quiet financial growth. In 1712 the city invited German settlers to populate the uninhibited areas, and they established Schwabendorf ( called Kőszegfalva, since 1896 ). Kőszeg also housed the Regional Court of Appeal, (1724-1869) which dealt with the major lawsuits of the nobility of the Transdanubian region. As a result, well-known noble families and several educated people, mainly those with law qualification settled in the city. In the 19 th century, the decline of the city was beginning to be felt. While the number of inhabitants stayed intact, the debts of the city were continually growing. The fact that Kőszeg's commercial significance had been descending was justified when the city was left out of consideration when the new railway lines were built. In the first half of the 19 th century, the city was still considered to be one of the major cultural centres of the county, mainly because of the societies the local intellectuals established for music, for the joy of reading, along with the local saving bank. After the Compromise of 1867, however, the very last stronghold fell, too: the city's broad-cloth small industry lost a battle against the cheap mass products. To make matters worse, year 1869 brought abaut more damage to the city when the Regional Court of Appeal closed its doors, as a rsult of which quite a few active intellectuals left the city. As Kőszeg was losing its influence, its citizens were compelled to restore their revenues by building schools and military quarters. They devoted their own money to making a railway connection with Szombathely. They provided substantial assistance for those companies that were ready tosettle in Kőszeg. It was then that the Tourists' Society, established to exploit natural beauties of the area, resolved to have loolouts and information sports built first only for local citizens, and later for other visitors as well. As the peace treaties after Word War I concluded that the larger part of Kőszeg's district schould be annexed to Austia, locals lost their neighboring markets at an instant. Kőszeg had no other route to follow but to evolve into a tourist city with various schools ( Evangelic girl's school, secular boys' school, military training school, secondary grammar school, and colleges training primary school teachers ). After Word War II, however, even this path of progress was hindered, because the closure of the frontiers led to the isolation of the area not only from abroad, but also from the inner part of the country. Kőszeg was slowly regaining its importance from the 1970s, but due to difficulties to get to the city, it could only start to revive after the dismantling of the Iron Curtain in 1989.


 

Feelings of Kőszeg

The people of Kőszeg can take pride in having a lovely little town so life for them is somewath more beautiful than for others. Here the bells ring not only at noon but also at 11, just one more sign to show people care abaut each other.

The slender columns and tall spires of the Jesus' Heart Church seem to hush the noise made by cars passing by. On this little square it is not proper to speak aloud, or to run around. What first the atmosphere of the square is rather silent walking and looking abaut, or contemplative reading of the signs on statues and monuments. " Shsll the Sun not set with your fury. " There are two lions on the pedestal, they look as if they just have stopped quarrelling. They throw their heads with pride while looking for a glance or a touch to share. This is a statue of forgiveness, moulded in humour and irony.

There are wobbling little chairs here and there with slips of paper showing the prices with scribbled handwriting for chestnut, grapes or bunches of flower. Coins jingle in the tiny boxes and bottles as you drop your pennies. You simply do not care to doupt if the prices are correct, and nobady would ever think of pinching the caddies with the money in. And indeed, the caddies have not been removed for long centuries.

Even the shadows and the sunrays seem familiar to the traveller. You are fascinated by the graceful tranquillity of the houses surrounding the City well, and bewitched by the cheerful colours and artistic forms of the City Hall. Taking a closer look at the ' Madonna in Gown ' , a fresco in the St James Church, you may start wondering wheter those anxious-looking figures you see on Bosch's paintings are seeking shelter under her gown. Who knows, these poor creatures might find comfort when glancing at the serene Sgraffito House, or when reading the Latin words on the palace's facade: " Non est volentis, neque Currentis, des miserentis dei. " ( " It does not depend on human will or effort, but on God's mercy. " )

The soft-brown breeze carries colours and sounds, and now we know one thing for certain: summers may turn into falls, human lives may wither, but the little town, the diamond of Hungary and Europe is there to stay. Kőszeg will never be alone, for there are noble friends to protect her: the Kalvaria Church with its redeeming eyes from the top of the hill, silence of the streets, the amity of the people, the medieval dust on the travellers' shoes, and the gentle embrace of Írott-kő mountain.

We are stolling along narrow little lanes, continuing our way towards the wood-craved Presbyterian Church, and a little bit further ahead, until we reach the sparkling streamlet, Gyöngyös. Then we climb onto a crumbling bridge to epproach the tree-lined alley so familiar from Géza Ottlik's novel ' A School on the Border '. We raise all sorts of questions, and Ottlik's sentences offer a uniform response: " It is only the feeling whitch is always there. "

By going through the Heroes' Gate, and admiring the naked sword of Miklós Jurisics, commander of the fortress so notably resisting the Turks, the traveller is reminded that it is possible both to live and die with dignity. The thousand-year-old stones of the fortress and its courtyard wear our steps flat. Here we are, bathing in the pale lights of a weary Sunday afternoon, remembering those bygone summer nights filled with the sounds of gay theatrical performances and Renaissance festivities.

Time seems to be sensed guite differently in this little town. If you stop by on the Jurisics Sguare, one of the nicest sguares of Central Europe, you will lose your sense of time, and your soul becomes elevated. You take a few unhurried glimpses around and say to yourself: "Well, this is just the ideal place to settle down, and take leisurely walks day after day. "