The Uzhhorod Castle (; ) is an extensive

citadel A citadel is the most fortified area of a town or city. It may be a castle, fortress, or fortified center. The term is a diminutive of ''city'', meaning "little city", because it is a smaller part of the city of which it is the defensive core. ...

on a hill in

Uzhhorod Uzhhorod (, ; , ; , ) is a List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality on the Uzh, Uzh River in western Ukraine, at the border with Slovakia and near the border with Hungary. The city is approximately equidistan ...

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

. It was built in a mixture of architectural styles and materials between the 13th and 18th centuries and figured heavily in the history of

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

. The very name of Uzhhorod/Ungvár refers to the castle, translating as "the

Uzh The Uzh (; translit. ''Uzh''; ; , ) is a river in Ukraine and Slovakia. Etymologists disagree about the origin of the name of the river. The Uzh is a tributary of the Laborets River, a river that flows in the Tysa Lowland in Zakarpattia Oblas ...

castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

". The earliest stone buildings on the site of the castle may be dated to the 13th century.

Charles I of Hungary Charles I, also known as Charles Robert (; ; ; 128816 July 1342), was King of Hungary and Croatia in the union with Hungary, Croatia from 1308 to his death. He was a member of the Capetian House of Anjou and the only son of Charles Martel of A ...

gave the castle grounds to his Italian supporters from the

Drugeth The House of Drugeth was a powerful noble family (of French origin) of the Kingdom of Hungary in the 14th to 17th centuries whose possessions were located in the northeastern parts of the kingdom. The ancestors of the family left Apulia (Southern ...

family. They erected a rectangular defensive structure with rhomboid

bastion A bastion is a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification, most commonly angular in shape and positioned at the corners of the fort. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks, with fire from the ...

s that recalled the castles of South Italy. The fortification, augmented in the 16th and 17th centuries, underwent numerous sieges (the last one by

Francis II Rákóczi Francis II Rákóczi (, ; 27 March 1676 – 8 April 1735) was a Hungarian nobleman and leader of the Rákóczi's War of Independence against the Habsburgs in 1703–1711 as the prince () of the Estates Confederated for Liberty of the Kingdom of ...

in 1703-04) but was never taken. In the 18th century, it was modernised under the supervision of Lemaire, a military engineer from France.Памятники градостроительства и архитектуры Украинской ССР. Киев: Будивельник, 1983—1986. Том 2, с. 160. As the male line of the Drugeth family died out in 1691, Kristina Drugeth, heiress to the vast Drugeth dominions, married Count

Miklós Bercsényi Count Miklós Bercsényi () ( Hrádok, Kingdom of Hungary, September 1665 – Tekirdağ, 6 November 1725) was a Hungarian military officer and chief general during Rákóczi's War of Independence (1703–1711). Biography He was the son of General ...

, making him the third richest man in Hungary.

Paul Robert Magocsi Paul Robert Magocsi (; born January 26, 1945) is an American professor of history, political science, and Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Toronto. He has been with the university since 1980 and became a Fellow of the Royal Societ ...

, Ivan Pop. ''Encyclopaedia of Rusyn History and Culture''. University of Toronto Press, 2002. . Page 515. Bercsényi, remembered as a key figure in

Rákóczi's War of Independence Rákóczi's War of Independence (1703–1711) was the first significant attempt to topple the rule of the Habsburgs over Royal Hungary, Hungary. The war was conducted by a group of noblemen, wealthy and high-ranking progressives and was led by F ...

, resided in the fortified palace within the castle. It was there that he treated with the ambassadors of

Peter the Great Peter I (, ; – ), better known as Peter the Great, was the Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia, Tsar of all Russia from 1682 and the first Emperor of Russia, Emperor of all Russia from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned j ...

and

Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

concerning the establishment of an anti-Habsburg alliance. In 1711, Bercsényi fled Hungary and his estates were confiscated to the Austrian crown. As the need for a military stronghold in the area declined with the extension of the

Habsburg The House of Habsburg (; ), also known as the House of Austria, was one of the most powerful dynasties in the history of Europe and Western civilization. They were best known for their inbreeding and for ruling vast realms throughout Europe d ...

dominions further to the east, Ungvár Castle was given over to the

Ruthenian Greek-Catholic Church The Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church, also known in the United States as the Byzantine Catholic Church, is a ''sui iuris'' (autonomous) Eastern Catholic particular church based in Eastern Europe and North America that is part of the worldwide ...

which opened a school there. In 1728 and 1879, fire ravaged the castle grounds.

Gallery

У дворi Ужгородського замку 02.jpg, Uzhhorod-castle-main-building.jpg, Ужгородський замок (5).jpg, Закарпатський краєзнавчий музей інтер'єр експозиції.jpg, File:Uzhhorod Castle entrance.jpg

References

External links

*
Transcarpathian museum of regional studies
{{Authority control Uzhhorod Castles in Ukraine

Castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...