Fortress sights in Hungary
- Sort by:
- Popular
-
Visegrád Citadel
Visegrád's impressive citadel is perched on top of the dramatic Castle Hill. Visegrád was once the royal centre of Hungary and the citadel, completed in 1259, was the repository for the country's crown jewels until 1440 when they were impishly stolen by Elizabeth of Luxembourg, with the help of her lady-in-waiting.
She hurried off to Székesfehérvár to have her infant son László crowned king. The crown was returned to the citadel in 1464 until the Turkish invaded. The Habsburgs came along in 1702 and blew the citadel up to prevent its use by Hungarian independence fighters as a base. Its remains were buried until the 1930s when archaeologists, following descriptions in…
reviewed
-
A
Fishermen’s Bastion
The bastion is a neo-Gothic masquerade that most visitors (and Hungarians) believe to be much older. But who cares? It looks medieval and offers among the best views in Budapest. Built as a viewing platform in 1905 by Frigyes Schulek, the bastion’s name was taken from the medieval guild of fishermen responsible for defending this stretch of the wall. The seven gleaming white turrets represent the Magyar tribes that entered the Carpathian Basin in the late 9th century. In front of the bastion is an ornate equestrian monument to St Stephen by sculptor Alajos Stróbl.
reviewed
-
B
barbican
To the west and north of Dóm tér is a long stretch of the old city wall that enclosed an area far too large to defend properly. The circular barbican, the only stone bastion to survive in Pécs, dates from the late 15th century and was restored in the 1970s.
reviewed
-
C
Bishop's Castle
To the north of the lapidarium within the fortified walls is the Bishop's Castle, also known as 'Püspökvár', a fortress-like structure with parts dating from the 13th century; the foundations of an 11th-century Romanesque chapel are on the south side.
reviewed