Szilágysomlyó

Szilágysomlyó (Șimleu Silvaniei, Schomlenmarkt) is famous for the Báthory Castle or Báthory Citadel, it can be found in Transylvania, Romania. As the former Somlyó Castle stands on the hill above the town,  the Báthory Castle is also known as the Lower Castle.

The oldest castle on the top of Magura Hill, at an altitude of 500 meters, dates back to the time of the conquest of Magyar tribes and is known as the “pagan castle”. It was a castle fortified with a palisade wall, but today practically nothing remained. However, archaeological excavations have confirmed its exact location and site. According to a legend: ‘There is a clearing up on the hill, called Vulture, where our conquering ancestors threw the food scraps from behind the palisades, and this is where the vultures of the area fed’.

It was first mentioned in 1251 as Vathasomlyova. The settlement was the ancestral estate of the Csolt clan, descended from the rebellious Vata. In 1258, Watha son of Watha of the clan Csolt, and Povsa son of Dénes sold Vatasomlaja together with its manor to Roland of the Rátót Clan and Móric of the Pók Clan for 120 marks and had its boundaries demarcated.

In 1319, Voivode Miklós, the son of Móric of Miklós from the Pók Clan gave the village of Szécs, which belonged to the Somlyó estate, to the sons of Luka. The castle was built by the Transylvanian Voivode Miklós in the early 14th century and was first mentioned in 1319. 

In 1341 it was demarcated from the Valka manor. At that time, it was the estate of Voivode Móric’s son (Meggyesi) Simon and István son of István. The first mention of the castle of Szilágysomlyó (Somlyó) was in 1351 when it and its manor were given to Anna, daughter of Móric Meggyesi, by Báthory Lászlóné, as a daughter’s quarter. (Note, that after the 14th century, I use the Oriental name order for Hungarians where family names came first.)

The ancestral seat of the Báthori family (since 1351), their ancient castle, Somlyóvár, stood on Magura Hill. However, it was abandoned when the castle was built in the town and the old castle on the summit has been ruined ever since.

On 27 September 1533, one of the greatest Transylvanian princes, Báthory István, king of Poland from 1575 to 1586, was born in Szilágysomlyó. With his army of mainly Hajdú soldiers and Székelys and Polish mercenaries, but also of other peoples, he defeated the Russian Tsar’s army in three campaigns, regained Livonia for Poland, and conquered Lithuanian Belorussia, etc.

In the meantime, he had also governed Transylvania well, and the Turks and Habsburgs were kept quiet, for he had a serious military force. He had planned to form an alliance of Poland, Upper Hungary, and Transylvania, by which he could have displaced both the Turks and the Habsburgs, but he died unexpectedly in 1586 at Grodno in Lithuania. You can read more about him here: https://www.hungarianottomanwars.com/essays/bathory-istvan-king-of-poland-and-prince-of-transylvania-1533-1586/

The first written record of the local school dates back to 1554, we know that around 1680 Királyhelmeczi János was the rector of the Somlyó school. After Somlyó castle was occupied and destroyed by the Turks in 1551, Báthory István had a castle built in 1592 in Szilágysomlyó. In 1594, when Prince Báthory Zsigmond executed István’s brother Báthory Boldizsár, István fled to Poland and the castle passed into the hands of the prince. At that time, a detailed inventory was drawn up, listing all the buildings and movables belonging to the castle.