Castles and Fortifications in the Carpathian Basin – MAP

Here it is: https://shorturl.at/X8ViO

I am creating a list of castles, forts, and fortified churches that are connected to Hungarian history. For now, I got ready with nearly 370 of such castles but there are hundreds (if not thousands) remaining to be translated and placed on the map. I would like to create a full English database over the next few years. Many of these fortifications can be found outside the modern borders of Hungary but once they used to be part of the Kingdom of Hungary.

The demolition of many castles

Unfortunately, not all the castles are intact. Many of them were destroyed by the Habsburgs, the Kuruc troops, the Turks, or the local inhabitants. We know that the Habsburgs demolished many Hungarian castles after reconquering the country and driving out the Turks out of fear of anti-Habsburg movements. However, it is a common misconception that the Habsburgs were responsible for the destruction of all the castles. Here are some of the thoughts of Mayer Jácint who put together a chart to illustrate the rate of castle demolitions.

“For this reason, we have compiled a non-exhaustive list of the causes of castle destruction. When we started, we did not realize that there were many overlaps and that the headings were not entirely correct. There are also some inaccuracies are likely because we did not have the most recent literature to hand. But that is not the point, it is a rough representation of the ratios. This chart will not show how much of this is specific destructive intent. Here we only show who was attacked last – as far as we know.

(…)

To sum up, the conventional thinking is not correct. The Kuruc leadership also had in mind the demolition of the obsolete fortifications and began to implement it. Sustainability, obsolescence, loss of function of the old castles, a little carelessness in some cases, and the recycling of building materials were the causes of the destruction of our castles.

The result of 112 castles:
-29 abandonments,
-16 peacetime demolitions with civilian involvement,
-14 some kind of accident or modern war damage,
-29 deliberate destruction by the emperor or destruction after military maneuvers,
-14 by the Turkish military,
-14 deliberate destruction by the Kuruc forces or after military maneuvers (probably more than one in the case of the evacuation of the Highland castles),
-9 by earlier Hungarian, possibly Transylvanian, military movements,
-3 destroyed by the French;”

Here are the charts made by Mayer Jácint:

(Translation of the columns: Habsburg; Kuruc; Ottoman; Hungarian; French; Peace-time demolition; Accident; Abandonment; Undefined)

Hungarian castles on social media

Regarding Hungarian castles, Wikipedia does not always have a detailed English description or just a few basic facts. Quite often, the Hungarian history of these castles is either not mentioned or marginalized, sometimes intentionally. I have even read articles where the facts were falsified in favor of other nations, and currently, the most beautiful Hungarian castles are flooding social media where there is no mention of the Hungarian name or history of the particular castle. However, the truth should be told because the students in Western schools do not learn much about Hungarian history.

This is too bad because simply put, there would be a lot fewer Western schools without the efforts of Hungarians in defending Western civilization. I would like to make it commonly known that the Hungarians fought this war for centuries, and suffered such ethnic losses in the meantime which crippled the country. Without understanding these fights, it is not possible to fathom the present situation in Central and Eastern Europe.

Here is the summary of my work in general:

https://www.hungarianottomanwars.com/spreading-hungarian-history/a-report-of-spreading-hungarian-history-project-between-2016-2021/

In my articles about the castles, I relied on the sources of contemporary Hungarian researchers, however, the descriptions are not full. Hopefully, I will be able to improve them in the future. Yet, as far as I know, presently there is no other database about Hungarian castles in the English language, so we have to make do with my gap-filling project. My goal is to tell the world that European history would have been quite different without these castles, especially those that belonged to the Borderland during the Ottoman wars between the 1400s and 1699. You can read more about the 1,000-mile-long Hungarian-Croatian-Transylvanian Borderland on my page:

https://www.hungarianottomanwars.com/essays/the-borderland/

I intended to show lots of nice pictures to the Readers, so there is a gallery of images next to the articles. However, I have a few castles and fortified churches without a gallery, I still have to find the proper pictures. Hereby I would like to express my gratitude to those generous people who have given their photos to me to use them.

Here is the map where you can find lots of castles related to Hungarian history, enjoy them, and share them with your friends:

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