Kabold

Kabold (German: Kobersdorf, Croatian: Kobrštof) is a market town in the Felsőpulya district of Burgenland, Austria. The area around Kabold was already inhabited by Celts in the 1st century BC. During the Migration Period, the area was inhabited by Germanic, Avar, and Slavic (Slovene) peoples. According to some historians, the name of the settlement “Kundpoldersdorf” in a letter of King Louis of Germany in 860 refers to Kabold. After the invasion of Pannonia, the area became part of the Hungarian borderland system.

It is certain that the German name Kabold (Kobersdorf) was derived from the Hungarian name. The name Kabold is obviously related to the old name Kobula of the Schwartzbach brook because the Kabold castle and the village are situated next to this brook.

The oldest document concerning the Kabold region was issued by King András II in 1222: in it, the king acquires Veperd and Lakompak from the Comes of Miklós son of Bors, and gives them to his favorite follower, Botus son of Pousa, who traveled to meet King András II on his way back from the Holy Land and even became a prisoner for his king. The confirmation document of 1229 does not mention the name of Kabold yet, but it mentions a village near the castle “…et villa quae est apud Castellum…”. So the castle was built between 1222 and 1229.

According to some Austrian historians, Kabold belonged to Styria from 1170 to 1260, but this is unfounded since King András II had control over the estate. It may have been briefly occupied during the Austrian wars of King Béla IV, but in 1250 Béla IV had already taken Kirschlag and in 1254 the nearby Schwarzenbach. In 1273 it was unsuccessfully besieged by the armies of Ottokar of Bohemia. A document from 1277 mentions Suur of Osl as the royal castellan of Kabold, so the castle was a Hungarian royal estate.

In 1280 King László IV gave it to the sons of Márk of the Csák clan. The Csák family could not keep the castle for a long time, because in 1289 the Austrian Duke Albrecht conquered Kabold in his war against Ivan of Kőszeg, and the castle was handed over to him. The garrison of Kabold apparently did not want to suffer the fate of the neighboring Nyék, whose defenders, captured during the siege, were hanged by Duke Albrecht, except for children and women. Berthold of Emmersberg was the lord of the castle until 1291 when King András III took it back after a peace treaty with Albrecht.

In 1319 King Károly I sent an army led by Gutkeled Miklós and Köcski Sándor against the rebellious Kőszegi family. After conquering Kőszeg, this army took Kabold and the castle of Pölöske in Zala County.

Sometime during these troubled times, the people of Nagymarton (the Fraknó clan) laid their hands on the castle, which was confirmed by a royal charter with King Robert Károly in 1323. The Csák family did not give up Kabold, but finally, in 1332 they agreed to give up the castle and the whole estate as compensation for the destruction of the Bajót castle and their estate by the Nagymartoni family.

In 1324, during an Austro-Hungarian customs war, King Robert Károly forbade merchants to transport their goods to Austria via Kabold, bypassing the city of Sopron.

It was owned by Count Fraknói Vilmos until 1445 when it was mortgaged to the Austrian prince Albrecht VI. In 1446 the male branch of the Nagymartoni family died out and Hunyadi János, as governor of the country, donated Kabold. However, the investiture was canceled because in 1447 Prince Albrecht bought it from the daughters of Vilmos. In 1447 János of Linz became the lord of Kabold Castle. The prince sold the castle to Emperor Frederick III in 1451. Frederick gave the castle to Weispriach Zsigmond in 1452.

In the 1463 peace treaty between King Matthias and Emperor Frederick III, Kabold was described as an oppidum, a market town, and Matthias recognized Frederick’s right to the castle, which was described as being in a state of ruin. Weisspriach later became a supporter of Matthias and in 1466 Matthias gave him Kabold. In 1482 the castle was extended with a late Gothic outer castle and a castle chapel.

In the War of 1477, Frederick (also) lost Kabold. However, after the death of King Matthias, the pretender to the throne, Miksa (Maximilian), made little effort to regain the lost estates and forced King Ulászló II to make agreements on them in the Treaty of Pozsony in 1491, roughly in line with the peace treaty of 1463. In 1506 Weisspriach Ulrik is mentioned as ‘liber dominus de Kabold’.

In 1529, the Turks besieging Vienna destroyed Kabold, which was rebuilt in Renaissance style by the Weisspriachs. In 1553, after the death of the last Weisspriach, Kabold was divided into several parts and the castle was used as a robbery and a mint. In 1563 Csoron János of Devecser acquired it by marriage. With him, the Hungarian landlords entered the early modern history of Kabold.

In 1570 the Chamber of Lower Austria acknowledged that Kabold was bought by Csoron János as a free estate: “frey aigen erkhaufft guet”. After the death of Csoron János in 1586, his daughter Nádasdyné Csoron Margit and her son-in-law Balassa István succeeded him. With them, the Kabold estate was divided. Later, Kabold passed through Csoron Anna to her husband, Baron Liszty István, who inherited the estate.

In 1620 the castle was occupied by the army of Bethlen Gábor. In 1629 the son of the lord of the castle shot his brother-in-law, Zsigmond Zay, in the castle. The estates of Fraknó, Kabold, Borostyánkő, Kőszeg, Kismarton, and Szarvkő, which had been pledged to Austria, were returned to Hungary by Act 60 of the Sopron Diet in 1635. The castle became the property of Kéry János Ipolykéri, the heir of Weisspriach. He rebuilt it into a baroque castle, which was finished in 1656.

On April 16, 1670, Zrínyi Péter and Frangepán Ferenc, accused of conspiracy, stayed in Kabold. Kéry Ferenc, the lord of the castle, reported this to Vienna and was rewarded with the title of count. In 1683 the Turks besieging Vienna retreated and destroyed the castle. Kéry tried to rebuild it, but it was too much for him.

In 1704 it was bought by Prince Esterházy Pál. In 1707 Austrian troops were brought to the castle because of the Kuruc threat. The Esterházy family owned the castle until 1963 when it was bought by the Bolldorf-Reitstätter family, who restored the dilapidated building.

Source: Várlexikon https://varlexikon.hu/kabold

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