PETER MEZRICZKY:
Four Ancient Castles in the Lake Balaton Region
Vasárnapi Újság [Sunday Journal], Volume XVI, Issue 43, Pest, 24 October 1869.
A traveller heading south along the highway through the Bakony hills near Sümeg, making for Tapolca, has no inkling of the romantic beauty of the Balaton region that unfolds before him upon emerging from the forest — with the hills of Szent-György, Badacsony, the Gulács Peak and the Haláp hills appearing almost simultaneously. The hills crowned with the ruins of the castles of Szigliget, Csobánc and Hegyesd are each distinct and unconnected, their soils differing from one another. These hills appear to rise from the plain stretching between them like bubbles from the calm surface of Lake Balaton, which borders the shores of this region to the south. With the exception of Hegyesd and Gulács Peak, their slopes are covered with vineyards long celebrated under the name of Badacsony for their wines. The beauty and romantic character of this region have been described by many, and have been immortalised in verse by our own celebrated poet of Zala County; I shall therefore spare the reader a detailed account. However, I believe the history of these castles — whose very ruins proclaim the power of the old Hungarian lords — will be of interest. The account that follows, particularly as regards Szigliget, has been compiled on the basis of historical documents found in the archive of Mr. József Inkey at Iháros-Berény, in Somogy County.
1. Szigliget. Before the reign of King Saint László, the estate of Szigliget belonged to the family of Chieftain Botond. (The editor notes that no known historical sources record a family descended from Chieftain Botond.) The last of the Botond line, having separated the neighbouring village of Raposka, donated it to the Chapter of Fehérvár; the chapter's widow, however, in 1080 gave half of the estate to Vajvoda of Megyes, and bequeathed the other half by will to the Benedictines. Vajvoda of Megyes subsequently exchanged the Benedictines' portion for his estate in Vas County — Dömölk — which the order retains to this day. In the same year of 1080, during the time when Saint László was still Crown Prince, a boundary was drawn between Szigliget, Ederics and Vita; for this purpose Count (comes) László, then lord of Ederics, and the joint landowners of Vita were summoned.
During the Mongol invasion, Szigliget was destroyed and reverted to the possession of the Benedictines, who rebuilt the castle within three years. Its spacious courtyard extended over several acres, providing ample room for the garrison to drill. The castle was later exchanged by royal decree and came into the possession of the Újlaki family. Following the extinction of that line, around 1490 it passed to the Lengyel family. One member of the Lengyel family, residing in Vas County in the mid-fifteenth century and acting on behalf of Újlaki, paid 2,000 gold coins as a pledge to the Count of Hegyesd and thus took possession of Szigliget. The family retained the estate even after the extinction of the Újlaki line, having obtained royal grants not only for the Szigliget estate but also for the extensive estate of Lengyeltóti on the opposite shore of Lake Balaton, including the castle of Fonyód situated on the lakeside — and having duly executed the statutory proceedings. The Báthory family objected, claiming closer kinship with the Újlaki line, but their objection came to nothing, as they failed to summon the Lengyels ad recipiendam contradictionis rationem (to answer the objection). From the Lengyel family, László attended the Diet of Rákos in 1504 as a delegate of Somogy County.
Under János Zápolya, Bálint Török also held Szigliget, propter adhaesionem (by reason of affiliation), but following his captivity in Turkish hands and by virtue of Act 20 of 1552, the Lengyels were restored to their former possessions — until the Captain of Fonyód Castle, Bálint Magyar, having married Brigitta Lengyel, forcibly expelled her brothers Gáspár and Boldizsár Lengyel from their estates. They lodged a complaint through the delegate of Somogy County at the Diet of 1563, and Act 55 ordered that the powerful usurper be prosecuted. However, Bálint Magyar died before the case was concluded, and only after his death were the brothers able to reclaim their property. When a conventual friar from the monastery of Zalavár — a Franciscan Minor living under mitigated rules — delivered the summons to him at Fonyód Castle, Bálint Magyar assaulted and manhandled the poor friar, had him pushed into a boat on the shore of Lake Balaton, and kicked the boat out onto open water himself, with the words: "Vado bestia pap" ["Off you go, beast of a priest"]. The unfortunate friar drifted helplessly in the oarless boat for some time, until a favourable wind drove it back toward Fonyód; at that point the placated captain assigned two boatmen to him and had him put ashore on the far bank near Badacsony — as is recorded in the friar's report to his convent. Yet the bold captain was undaunted by the Diet or the legal proceedings ordered against him, for a year later King Maximilian, newly ascended to the throne, expressed royal favour toward him — "complacentiam regiam nostrum tibi significamus" — in recognition of the military distinction he had earned in raids against the Turks from the castles of Szigliget and Fonyód.
Protected to the south by Lake Balaton and on the remaining sides by marshes formed by the Egri, Tapolca, Billegei and Lesencetomaj streams, Szigliget Castle was never taken by force. It was ultimately destroyed by a lightning strike and subsequent fire, having previously been repaired at state expense under Acts 49 of 1618 and 35 of 1622.
The Lengyel estate — granted and held exclusively in the male line — was connected by blood and inheritance with the Somlai, Fájszi, Korotnai and Pető families, and the family owned 212 villages and farmsteads across the counties of Baranya, Somogy, Zala and Moson. When the male line became extinct in the persons of Imre and Gáspár Lengyel, their daughters inherited: Imre's daughter Anna (wife of Ignác Kiss), and Gáspár's daughters Julianna (wife of Baron Menyhért Pásztori) and Krisztina (wife of Baron Vencel Puteáni). From the late Anna descended Terézia — first the wife of Antal Inkey, then of Baron István Majthényi — from whom in turn came József Inkey (a former delegate for Csurgó, Somogy County), Zsigmond (a delegate for Somogy before 1848), Lajos, Iphigenia, and Anna Majthényi (wife of Count Antal Forgács). The descendants of Gáspár included, through Julianna, General Imre; and through Krisztina, Baron József Puteáni (delegate for the Zala-Tapolca district in 1848), and Kálmán, son of Sándor, an artillery captain. Were space to permit, I would at greater length describe the genuinely noble and charitable character of Anna, and her almost unparalleled hospitality — no one turned to her in vain for comfort or assistance, and she provided a pension for all her officers and servants.
2. Csobáncz. This castle was built by King Béla IV on the summit of a steep hill, covering an area of approximately ten acres. The identity of its lords in the early period could not be established, but by the fourteenth century it was held by the Gyulafy family. In the early seventeenth century, one member of that family — László — moved to Transylvania to claim his maternal inheritance and served there as lieutenant-governor under Bocskay. One Gyulafy daughter married into the Thököly family, and another into the Esterházy family, through whom the castle passed into Esterházy possession. Another Gyulafy daughter married Samu Saári, who also resided in the castle as one of the heirs. I have read a verdict of the Zala County court from 1674, ordering the enforcement of a favourable judgement for Márton Boki or Baki, the deputy captain of Csobánc Castle — though the document does not name the lord of the castle, referring only to the plaintiff's rank: "Sacratissimae Majestatis arcis Csobánc vicecapitaneus" [Deputy Captain of His Most Sacred Majesty's Castle of Csobánc]. The descendants of this Baki settled in Kővágóörs, a village about an hour's distance from Csobánc, where they remain numerous to this day. According to oral tradition, the last Gyulafy, having served as a sub-commander of the Kuruc forces, fled to Turkey with Rákóczi, with the words:
"Jó ború Badacsony, jó halú Balaton, Isten hozzád! Csobánc, engem többé nem látsz." ["Badacsony of fine wines, Balaton of fine fish — farewell! Csobánc, you shall see me no more."]
One of those who passed through Kütahya recounted that a wealthy landowner there named Gyüle frequently entertained him and his companions, claiming to be a descendant of the Gyulafy who had emigrated with Rákóczi. If the princely archive — that of the present lord of the Csobánc estate — were made available to researchers, the history of Csobánc could be established in greater detail.
3. Hegyesd. On a hill rising in the shape of a sugar loaf, a castle of modest dimensions was likewise built under King Béla IV; its area measured only four fathoms in width and eight in length, though the ruins of more extensive walls built on broader terraces lower down the hillside are still discernible. According to a letter of King Sigismund dated 1433 from Mantua, the lord of this castle was a certain Zechen (perhaps Szécsi or Szécsényi?). In this letter, the king informed Márton Zechen of his intention to redeem the castle from Bishop Rozgonyi and grant it to Miklós Salgó — from which it appears that Zechen himself held the castle merely as usufructuarius (a holder of the right of use). Whether Miklós Salgó ever came into possession of it, the records are silent. The castle subsequently passed to the Sárkány family, one member of which served as Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Zala, and another — as recorded in Act 25 of 1625 — as superintendent of the armoury at Zalavár Castle.
Toward the end of the reign of Ferdinand I, the castle was left without the necessary garrison and guarded by a single soldier; according to tradition, the Turkish commander Bajazid captured it by stratagem with 200 men. Having seized a peasant who was carrying wine from the vineyards of Csobánc or Keszi to the soldier, Bajazid used him to lead himself and his troops to the castle gate that night; the gate was opened upon the peasant's terrified call, whereupon the Turks rushed in and seized the castle, using it thereafter as a base for raiding expeditions throughout the Balaton region.
Upon learning of this, Palatine Nádasdy dispatched a besieging force under the command of Count Egon Salm, who, taking with him sub-commanders Gyulafy, Chorom and the aforementioned Bálint Magyar of Szigliget, besieged and — after fierce resistance — retook the castle using artillery brought from Sárvár, as described in contemporary chronicles. It was at this time that the castle likely came into the hands of Gyulafy, as the owner of the surrounding territory. The claim made in Hazánk és a Külföld [Our Land and Abroad] that Nádasdy ever held this castle is entirely without foundation — whether in the county records or in the archive of the Saári family, despite the fact that, as mentioned under Csobánc, Samu Saári had married Eufrozina Gyulafy, and their grandchildren Péter and Mihály also appear as owners of Hegyesd. At that time an elderly unmarried Gyulafy woman lived in the castle jure capillari (by right of hair — i.e. as a female heir), together with her confessor friar; after her death it was again held by her brothers. In more recent times, the Kovács family also held a share in Hegyesd — most likely descended from the Sárkány family — though their descendants sold their portions partly to Prince Esterházy (as heir to the Gyulafy line), and partly to members of the Saári, Dobosi and Forintos families. The exclusive manorial lord of the small village below the castle, until the abolition of serfdom, was Esterházy.
4. Szent-György. On the summit of this hill — whose slopes are planted with vineyards on all sides — covering an area of approximately one hundred acres, a castle was also built under King Béla IV, though of this only oral tradition bears witness. In the early seventeenth century, the Egyed family of Kékkút, a village neighbouring Kővágóörs, applied for a new royal grant to their estate; however, the homo regius (royal commissioner) and the chapter representative could not carry out the statutory proceedings on site, and instead conducted them from the village of Köveskálla, half an hour's distance away, stating in their report: "non potuimus ire ad faciem loci ob metum hostis christiano nomini infestissimi" ["we could not proceed to the site itself for fear of the enemy most hostile to the Christian name"]. This indicates that Kékkút was then held by the Turks and Köveskálla by imperial forces; with hostilities and the harassment of the local population being constant, many notable events occurred that were never committed to writing, though much oral tradition circulates among the inhabitants of a region long afflicted by the Mongol and Turkish invasions and the civil wars.
The ruins of a chapel built on the north-western summit of the hill are still visible; not far away, only the buried foundations of a larger and older structure can be traced, upon which the castle walls were most probably constructed. The slopes of Szent-György hill were held as manorial estates — by the Inkey and Baron Puteáni families of the Lengyel line as lords of Hegymagas, by Prince Esterházy as lord of Raposka, by Count Esterházy as lord of Kisapáti, by the Bishop of Veszprém as lord of Tapolca, and by the Hertelendy and Horváth families as lords of Diska. With the exception of Diska, the boundaries of the three villages extend up to the hilltop, which was partitioned among those landowners this year by an agreement reached in proceedings before the Deputy Lord Lieutenant's court.
Of these castles, Szigliget and Csobánc were immortalised in the celebrated verse-tales of our laureate poet of Zala County, who sighs for the glorious era of the castle lords and seems, in the prologue to his tale of Somló, to wish it back. I, however, cannot share his sentiment — for those castle lords were a scourge upon the people of the region, waging war against one another, plundering each other's castles, and only the just King Matthias managed to keep them in check. Woe betide the husband and father who had a beautiful wife or daughters. The lord of Szigliget had the castle of Pölöske attacked and plundered by his own captain at Diska; when prosecuted for this, the lord was acquitted because the plaintiff failed to prove the commission of the act, and while the captain was convicted, he fled at the time of enforcement and was found to have nothing of value — thus a robbery committed openly and in full view of all went as unpunished as Bálint Magyar's violent seizure and the expulsion of lawful owners. Who, reading our statute books, does not recall how Péter Bakics seized Zsuzsanna Forgách, wife of Ferenc Révay, after besieging and storming her castle — and yet returned her not, despite the explicit order in Act 26 of the Diet of 1688 — to cite but one example among many. Yet such powerful brigand-knights existed in virtually every country of Europe in that era, all the more so because the demands of the age itself encouraged them. As Johann Müller wrote of that period:
"The occupation of the nobility is war, the image of the country is chaos, and the story of its people is misery."
(Péter Mezriczky (1799–1884) was a jurist who attended secondary school in Sopron and Pápa, studied philosophy together with Ferenc Deák in Győr, and served as a jurátus (law clerk) at the Royal Table in Pest. He practised as a solicitor in Kővágóörs for nearly forty years.)
(Source: Electronic Periodical Archive Database of the National Széchényi Library)