A New Village Center Emerges

The close relationship between the village and the castle explains why the Árpád-era settlement gradually began to decline. At the same time, a new settlement developed below the castle, on the site of today’s village. By the early 15th century, it was referred to as Újfalu (“New Village”) or Szigliget (Wyfalu, Zegligeth). From the historical outline above, it can be concluded that a small population likely survived in the area around the Avasi Church—an area already inhabited during Roman times—through the period of the Hungarian Conquest. Over time, they became assimilated into the Hungarian population, and together they laid the foundations of the village of Szigliget at the same location. This assumption is supported by Árpád-era pottery fragments found around the Romanesque Avasi Church (built at the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries), as well as by a boundary survey recorded in 1420. In the old village—by then already abandoned—the stone church dedicated to All Saints still stood, having previously served as a parish church. As the old settlement declined, the new one continued to develop. To locate Újfalu, it is worth examining present-day Szigliget: the new center of the village likely formed in the small area near the road leading up to the castle, where today the Garden of Heroes and service buildings can be found. A new church was also built in this emerging center. On the site of the present-day church, before later renovations (in 1727 and 1877), there stood a Romanesque building with a semicircular apse, probably already dating from the 13th century. It is highly likely that this church was constructed by the Benedictines at the same time as the castle.