Permanent exhibitions in István Dobó Castle Museum

Gothic Bishop’s palace: the history of the fortress of Eger
Heroes’ room: The original tombstone of István Dobó and the names of the defenders
Picture gallery: 16th-18th century Italian and German art, 18th – 19th century Hungarian and Austrian art
Ruin’s garden: gothic and late gothic style cathedral from the 12. century
Catacombs: the underground fortification system of the castle, roman and gothic style stone remains
Prison museum: execution, torture and humbling in Hungary in the past

Private exhibitions

Waxworks, coinage, archery

For more information about the exhibitions please visit: http://www.div.iif.hu

Webcam from the court of the castle.

The short history of the castle of Eger and its sights

One of the best-known buildings of the town is the castle of Eger, with its long history over many centuries. The castle is visited by hundreds of history loving people. It became well known all over the world after the siege of 1552, when the Hungarian defenders led by captain István Dobó, managed to beat back the Turkish army - that was far superior in numbers - in a heroic battle. The castle was in its glory during the 16th century. Before that it had been the centre of the Bishopric and only its cathedral had been famous. Bishop Lambert got permission to build a castle in Eger as early as in 1248, but as a military compound it was first mentioned in a certification in 1363. From these certifications we know that inside the walls there was the cathedral, the Saint Steven Church, the Bishop’s palace and more than ten houses for the canons. Apart from these there could only have been a few other public and religious buildings and some civil houses inside the castle. According to the medieval style of castle building theory, its walls were built to be as high as possible and hard to climb. During the late 15th century several new fortification methods came out in Italy, mainly as a result of the rapid development of canons and artillery. As the castle of Eger did not keep up with the rapid development of firearms, it was rather outdated during the Mohács Disaster.

After losing the battle at Mohács the castle, which had been owned by the Bishops of Eger, was given to Péter Perényi in 1537. He had the castle rebuilt according to the latest military strategies. Allessandro de Vedano built a wall made of stone around the hill lying east of the castle. This area was the so-called rampart and became the home of the cavalry. The stables were also built there. A new, big, gothic style cathedral was planned within the castle but they stopped building it half-way through, and the walls already built were used to form a new bastion called Shrine bastion (Szentély bástya) (Unfortunately when the railway was being built this bastion was partly destroyed.)

István Dobó, who became the captain of the castle in 1548, continued its’ fortification until the siege in 1552. He had a new bastion built on the western side of the inner fortress, which was named after him: Dobó bastion.

After the siege, in which the castle suffered some serious damage, it was again renovated and rebuilt. Some new battlements were built that would protect the walls from canon fire. Ottavio Baldigara, the excellent fortress architect, led the rebuilding work. The underground arched rooms, the barracks, the canon rooms, and the long underground mine-watching tunnels were all built during these years. Unfortunately no new bastions or catacombs could replace the heroic soldiers of Dobó, and the fortress was captured after a short battle by the Turkish army in 1596. During the 91-year Turkish reign only a small bastion was built to protect the gate. In 1687 the castle was handed over to the Habsburgs, who destroyed the so-called Nice bastion (Szép bástya) and the outer walls because it cost a lot of money to maintain the ageing castle. They were also afraid that, if it fell into the hands of the rebelling Kuruc troops, it could be used to serve the cause of the Hungarian independence and freedom fighters. The treasury sold the castle to Bishop Ezsterházy in 1783. It was at this time that people started to use the stones of the old castle to build all major buildings in the town. It was also therefore, the time when this well-known castle became ruins. Even the underground tunnels and catacombs were blocked up with slump.

It was Bishop Pyrker who ordered the protection of the ruins of the old cathedral as a monument. He had the well of the castle cleaned and, in 1833, he had the tombstone of István Dobó, which was made of red marble, moved into the castle from its original location. Dobóruszka. Pyrker’s followers however gave the castle back to the Military Treasury, as he wanted to relieve himself of the costs of its’ upkeep. Later during the 1860’s and the 1870’s, canon Arnold Ipolyi (later he became the bishop of Nagyvárad) and first lieutenant János Balogh continued to excavate the ruins. János Balogh was the first who started to discover the remains of the underground system in 1877.

The more serous excavation started only after Gárdonyi’s popular novel “Egri Csillagok” had been published in 1920’s. It was the private initiative of Dr. Ervin Pálosi, Dr. Vidor Pataki and János Lénárt. In the 1960’s new excavation started and it has been going on since that time.

The former Bishop’s palace standing in the northern part of the yard of the inner fortress is the only building that remains from The Middle Ages. Around 1470 it was rebuilt in gothic style for Bishop János Beckensloer using the remains of several smaller houses.

Beckensloer used to be King Mathias’ counsellor and friend, but who later betrayed the king and had to leave the country. Out of the later owners of the palace we should mention Orbán Dóczy who was the Bishop of Eger as well as Vienna during the last years of King Mathis’ reign and Tamás Bakócz who later became the Archbishop of Esztergom and had the chance to became the Pope.

The palace was damaged in the fire of 1542 and, ten years later, during the great siege it suffered major damage. Later captain Gergely Bornemissza had the castle rebuilt but this time not for the Bishop but for himself. In the next few decades the ground floor was used to store military materials while the upper floor was the living quarters of the Captain and other officers. After the Turks occupied the town it became the home of the Pasha of Eger. According to contemporary notes a private bathhouse was built for the pasha. After the Christian army recaptured the castle of Eger it became the home of the Habsburg emperor’s Captain. In 1783 the Treasury sold the whole castle to the bishopric. The ground floor was used as a prison and the upper floor as a garner. When the bishop gave back the fortress to the military again in 1871 it was first used as a barracks then later as a storage area.

In 1957 the building was given to the Museum of Eger which is the home of exhibition of the history of the castle. The detailed restoration, finished in 1963, which was not an easy task. Fortunately the west part of the arching survived in relatively good condition on the ground floor, which gives the characteristics of the building. (The five arches in the east are only reconstructions.) This corridor runs in front of the rooms downstairs, covered by gothic groins. It is worth taking a look at the fine headstones of each groin. You can see some interesting carvings: a man’s head, a strange torso, some stylised plants, a dog with its three cubs, etc. On the inner wall of the corridor we can find lots of gothic style doors and windows with stone frames. The east side of the building used to be longer but it was taken down. There could have been a staircase in The Middle Ages where there is a staircase leading upstairs today. We do not know how the forefront looked in The Middle Ages. It is possible that there was a corridor with arching similar to the corridor downstairs but it was destroyed without any trace. The gallery-like corridor with the wooden columns, as you can see today, were reconstructed based on drawings from the 18th century showing you the state of the building from that century.

Downstairs you can see the red marble tombstone of István Dobó. On the walls of that room there is a list with the names of those people who defended the fortress during the siege of 1552. Dobó was buried in Dobóruszka, his tombstone was taken to Eger by count János Buttler in 1833 as a gift to Archbishop Pyrker.

Although he had a great victory, Dobó’s life was not easy. Shortly after the siege was over he had to deal with economic matters and, after he had reconciled everything, he resigned. King Ferdinánd I. gave him Déva and Szamosújvár as a gift in recognition of his services. Later he became the voivode of Transylvania in 1553. In 1556 Transylvania broke away from the Hansburg and Queen Izabella (who was the widow of Szapolyai) had Dobó imprisoned. Fortunately he was quickly released. King Ferdinánd gave him more land and named him the captain of Léva.
In 1566 when sultan Szulejman led his army against Hungary and Austria, Dobó joined the battles with his troops to protect Vienna. The next year he was impeached to have come over to the side of Zsigmond János, who was the prince of Transylvania. On 12nd December 1569 the King had him captured with one of his relatives János Balssi, who was the father of Bálint Balssi, at the parliament in Bratislava. Balassi managed to escape but Dobó stayed in prison until 17th April 1572, when the accusations against him turned out to be false. The imprisoned hero of Eger died a few months after he left the prison.

Source - Wellner István: Eger (Panoráma 1987)