Gyula Castle

Gyula Castle is the only well-preserved lowland Gothic brick fortress of the former Kingdom of Hungary's plains region, which from the 16th century was a decisive stronghold of the country. It stands in Békés County, in the inner city of Gyula.

Location

Gyula lies on the former floodplain of the White Körös. The surrounding area is a perfect plain. Because our main river, the White Körös, has a small drop, it did not carve a deep channel that could drain its large water volume during floods. Due to its slight drop, it split into several branches that formed islands. The higher areas remained water‑free even during floods. Two islands were built upon, one hosting the town, the other the castle. Its strength derived from being built on one of the hard‑to‑reach islands among the marshy branches of the White Körös. Since stone was not available nearby, its walls were erected from bricks fired on site.

History

After the foundation of the state, the most important settlement of the county was initially Békés, built at the then confluence of the White and Black Körös. Gyula came into prominence from the 14th century and gradually developed into an economic, political and cultural centre. Its rise was aided by becoming the centre of a huge estate organized during the reign of Charles Robert. The king granted the town municipal rights:

the right to hold markets and

customs exemption

to Gyula; with these acquisitions the settlement became a town. The charters mention it as an oppidum, i.e., a market town, from 1419.

From construction to Ottoman rule (1405–1566)

King Sigismund of Hungary donated the Gyula estate in 1403 to Janos Maróti, Ban of Macsó; thereafter Maróti built the castle. In a 1405 rebellion trial two Gyula castle towers are mentioned, and historians infer that those named were the main officers of a castle under construction. By 1445 a large part of the castle still visible today was already standing; its chapel was consecrated on 10 June 1445 by Bishop Miklós of Tripoli, auxiliary bishop of Eger. After the defeat at Varna (10 November 1444) László Maróti withdrew here with his family. The castle courtyard was built in three phases: the number of buildings grew with the lord’s comfort expectations. When the Maróti family line died out, the castle reverted to the king in 1476.

King Matthias was lord of the castle for six years, then in 1482 he donated it to his natural son, John Corvinus. By then the estate already included 83 villages and fields. In a deed issued in 1484 he appointed his son and the then castellan of Gyula Castle to the office of the chief official of the county of Békés, thus this town became the county centre. The huge income from the prince’s estates was consumed by his wars against the Turks. The castle also developed during the time of John Corvinus: the castle garden was built, and a corridor with buttresses was created at the height of the first floor. John Corvinus died in 1504. Since his son, Christopher, also died, lacking a male heir his widow, Beatrix Frangepán, ruled the Gyula Castle and the vast estate alone for a short time, making her the only woman in Hungarian history to be the ispán of Békés County. Her child, the last female member of the Hunyadi family, Elizabeth Corvinus, died here in the castle in 1509.

The widow, complying with the king’s request, went to marry George of Brandenburg. When Beatrix died in 1510, the Gyula estate passed to her husband. The new owner had a large rondelle (circular gun tower) built on the western corner of the castle building, and he also arranged the breaches in the roof‑level gun embrasures. From then on the castle ceased to be a dwelling and residence. Due to the appearance of firearms, the medieval fortifications had to be altered, and the comfort functions receded.

In 1514, during the peasant uprising of György Dózsa, a small peasant detachment tried to capture the castle, but the garrison and the landed nobles repelled the attackers, and the peasants withdrew from the walls. After the defeat at the Battle of Mohács, they sided with King George Ferdinand of Brandenburg, so the forces of John Szapolyai, close to Transylvania, soon besieged Gyula. After a long siege of almost a year, they starved the defenders, who were forced to surrender the castle. Its new owner became Imre Czibak, the commander of the besieging army. After Czibak’s murder (1534), Miklós Patóczy, and then his brother Ferenc Patóczy, inherited the castle and its associated manor. After the peace treaty between the two kings, Ferdinand and Szapolyai, the Patóczy family exchanged Gyula for Boldogkő Castle with Ferdinand in 1552, making the Gyula castle a royal property again.

In 1551 the Turks reached the Maros line, and the only obstacle to their advance was the Gyula Castle. Gyula's role was then appreciated when the Ottoman Empire occupied Temesvár and Szolnok in 1552; thus it came into the first line. In the new situation the Gyula warriors, competing with the Egrés, collected taxes (double taxation) not only in the Tiszántúl region, but also broke into the area between the Danube and the Tisza. From castle inventories we know that the Gyula Castle negligently returned to the king's hands. In December 1560 Ferdinand appointed Laszlo Kerecsenyi, former captain of Szigetvár, as castle captain, and he began the modernization of the castle. The Italian military engineer Paolo Mirandola prepared the expansion plans in 1562, but then left Gyula, so Kerecsenyi, lacking a deputy, saw to the work himself. Its monumentality is indicated by the fact that at one time three thousand men worked on the earthworks simultaneously. The castle was intended to be transformed into an Italian bastioned fortification — unfortunately we do not know how much was completed from the plan of the era.