Marosvásárhely (Tirgu Mures, Nai Muark)
https://www.google.hu/maps/place/Marosv%C3%A1s%C3%A1rhely,+Rom%C3%A1nia/@46.5430817,24.4825579,17120m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x474bb64a553e9177:0xb1573a839869d90d
This was the center of the Seclers. After the Fifteen Year War the city was burned by German mercenaries, and in 1602 the rest of the houses were put to the torch by the Hungarians. The rebuilding went on until 1653. It became a free royal city in 1616. It was burned again in 1658 by Romanian and Turkish raiders. Pasha Ali took the town and made Mihály Apafi the Prince of Transylvania within its walls. Due to the Turks' carelessness the city burned down the next year. The next raiders were the Austrians in 1687. Later these activities continued. During the first part of the eighteenth century this city was hit four times by devastating plagues. Despite these hardships, the city remained the cultural, educational, and trade center of the Seclers.
Csíkszereda (Miercurea Ciuc, Seclerburg)
https://www.google.hu/maps/place/Cs%C3%ADkszereda,+Rom%C3%A1nia/@46.3574859,25.5998146,34357m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x474b2a092c490c6b:0x6aa5d0a276cb4941
This city was built at a trade junction and has always been a Catholic center for the Seclers. A Catholic college was founded here in 1630. At the time of the Ring of Fire, the city belonged to Ferenc Mikó, the councilor of Prince Bethlen. Count Ferenc Mikó (1585-1635) was also a famous diplomat and chronicler. He was the captain of Csík county and began to build the castle of Mikó there in 1623.
Torda (Turda, Torembrich)
https://www.google.hu/maps/place/Torda,+Rom%C3%A1nia/@46.5600797,23.7422575,17115m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x47496620aa78a95b:0xc7f433dbd893f8a3
Torda was the administrative center of the Transylvanian salt mines, and this was a key function in that time.
After the collapse of the Hungarian feudal state because of the taking of Buda by the Turks in 1541, the Diet of Torda in 1542 accepted Zsigmond János as the first Prince of Transylvania. It was the city where the Diet accepted the Protestant churches in 1557 and they declared the famous freedom of religion in 1568. During the bloody campaign of General Basta and his Austrian mercenaries in 1601, the inhabitants of Torda took refuge behind the walls of their Reformed church, which was built in gothic style. Basta had his cannons brought up and destroyed its walls, killing everybody inside. Prince Bethlen gave the depopulated settlement to salt miners in 1614. The town received a collective nobility in 1665.
Zalatna (Zlatna, Goldenmarkt)
https://www.google.hu/maps/place/Zalatna,+Rom%C3%A1nia/@46.1192289,23.179242,8627m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x474eb9b78807764f:0x900dd6af14117a4c
Its name derives from the Slavic word zlatna meaning gold. There were many rich gold mines, some of which are still in use. All the princes took good care of this mining city, and it was developing rapidly during the RoF. Its inhabitants were mainly Saxon miners.
Déva (Deva, Dimmrich)
https://www.google.hu/maps/place/D%C3%A9va,+Rom%C3%A1nia/@45.87563,22.8431837,17329m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x474ef2942e4b17ed:0x7a9550f58a1eda77
This was a fortress that was considered one of the key gates of Transylvania. Its most famous holder had been János Hunyadi, King Matthias' father. The first Unitarian bishop of Transylvania, Ferenc Dávid, was imprisoned and died here in 1579. It was the castle where the General Giorgio Basta wanted to execute all high aristocrats of Transylvania in 1603. Both Prince Bocskay and Bethlen were its owners; they used it as their living place. Déva was the dwelling place of Mária Széchy, the "Venus of Murány", between 1627 and 1640. It was Prince Bethlen who began the renovation of the castle in Renaissance style.
Vajdahunyad (Hunedoara, Hunnedeng)
https://www.google.hu/maps/place/Vajdahunyad,+Rom%C3%A1nia/@45.7631595,22.8726977,8682m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x474e8a547396159f:0x19f38ced3c35233b
This was the traditional knight castle of the great János Hunyadi. It can be seen today as it was built in its gothic glamour. It was attacked by the Romanian Michael in 1601. In 1618, the castle became the property of the Bethlen family, who renovated and improved it. Maria Széchy lived here in 1632 for a short time. Several guilds were working in the city: tailors, tillers, boot makers, and furriers. The Reformed church was established here in 1634.
Brassó (Brasov, Kronstadt or Kruhnen)
https://www.google.hu/maps/place/Brass%C3%B3,+Rom%C3%A1nia/@45.6524567,25.5264227,17399m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x40b35b862aa214f1:0x6cf5f2ef54391e0f
This well-fortified city was the main center of the Saxons of Transylvania. The settlers had come primarily from the Rhineland and the Moselle region, with others from Bavaria and even from distant parts of France.
Germans living in Brassó were mainly involved in trade and crafts. The location of this city at the intersection of trade routes linking the Ottoman Empire and Western Europe, together with certain tax exemptions, allowed Saxon merchants to obtain considerable wealth and exert a strong political influence. The town's "Black Church" is claimed to be the largest gothic-style church in Southeastern Europe. The first book printing office of Transylvania was established here in 1529, and the first book ever printed in Hungarian language was also made here around 1580. In the famous Saxon college of the town, students were taught not only in German but also in the Hungarian language, beginning in 1637.
Prince Gábor Báthory was defeated at Brassó in 1611 by the combined forces of Saxons and Romanians. The city and the church were put to the torch in 1689 by General Caraffa's mercenaries, hence the name the Black Church.
Szeben (Sibiu, Hermannstadt)
https://www.google.hu/maps/place/Nagyszeben,+Rom%C3%A1nia/@45.7829757,24.0697981,17358m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x474c6788fd2c1cd5:0x3ade9d214e3390b4
This medieval royal and free Hungarian town became the spiritual and trading center of the Saxons. János Hunyadi defeated Bey Mezid in 1444 under its strong walls which were defended by forty bastions.
The Turks were never able to take it, but there was a great fire in 1556. The Tatar raiders sacked the city in 1658.
Kolozsvár (Cluj, Klausenburg)
https://www.google.hu/maps/place/Kolozsv%C3%A1r,+Rom%C3%A1nia/@46.7833002,23.4764279,34088m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x47490c1f916c0b8b:0xbbc601c331f148b
This was the historical center and the most important town of Transylvania, the birthplace of King Matthias. It was one of the seven fortified Saxon cities that gave Transylvania its German name of Siebenbürgen. Prince István Bocskay was also born here. The town was in its heyday during Prince Bethlen's period when Transylvania was called a "fairy garden." Kolozsvár was called similarly the "treasure-house Kolozsvár." Both Prince Gábor Bethlen and Prince György Rákóczi I were elected prince here. The first university of Transylvania was established here by Prince Báthori in 1585. Its Jesuit professors were unfortunately chased away in 1603, and so the university closed its gates. Prince Gábor Bethlen issued a document here in favor of the Jewish inhabitants all over Transylvania in 1623 which permitted them to settle freely, trade freely, and practice their religion freely, without the obligation of wearing the distinctive marks for the Jewish.
Gyulafehérvár (Alba Iulia, Karlsburg)
https://www.google.hu/maps/place/Gyulafeh%C3%A9rv%C3%A1r,+Rom%C3%A1nia/@46.0616033,23.4879626,17271m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x474ea80cce754875:0xe9b0f44e8e45cd05
This was the capital of Transylvania, the seat of the princes, between 1542 and 1690. It had also been the administrative center of Transylvania in the medieval period of the Hungarian Kingdom. János Hunyadi defeated his legendary adversary, Bey Mezid, and his fifteen thousand-strong army next to the city in a three-day-long battle in 1442. The last freely-elected Hungarian national king who was also the first Prince of Transylvania, Zsigmond János, died in the city in 1571. He, his queen, and his son are buried in the city's Saint Istvan (Stephen) Basilica. The city saw the short and bloody rule of the Romanian Prince Michael in 1599-1600 and suffered the burnings and sa
cking of General Basta in 1602. Its Reformed college was established by Prince Bethlen, who died in the city in 1629. The Diet of Gyulafehérvár in 1630 reconfirmed the union of the historical three nations of Transylvania: the Hungarian, the Saxon, and the Secler.
****
Other famous settlements of Transylvania are: Székelyhíd, Kereki, Almás, Sebesvár, Szalonta, Arad, Medgyes, Fogaras, Kővár, Torockó, Nagyenyed
****
Turkish-Occupied Lands
City of Szolnok
https://www.google.hu/maps/place/Szolnok/@47.1803166,20.0435875,33836m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x474141123b36bec5:0x400c4290c1e11d0
This had an important function on the frontier because it was the entrance to Eger castle, which guarded the road to the north. Sultan Suleiman II ordered Pasha Achmed Ali and Mohamed to take Szolnok and Eger in 1552. The castle had been fortified in 1550, and Lörinc Nyáry was made its captain. He commanded fourteen hundred Spanish, German, and Czech mercenaries and had just a handful of Hungarian soldiers. The fort was supplied with twenty-four cannons and three thousand muskets along with eight hundred quintals of gunpowder.
Pasha Achmed Ali besieged the castle with his forty thousand-strong army on September 2, 1552. The German mercenaries were the first to think of fleeing but it turned out that the Hungarian boaters had fled away before them. The next day the Hungarian and the Spanish riders swam across the River Tisza at night, and then the boaters returned for the rest of the foot soldiers. All of the mercenaries had fled by the third day of the siege and left the gate ajar behind themselves. Captain Nyáry and his 50 faithful Hajdu soldiers were left behind and captured by the Turks, who garrisoned the fort with two thousand soldiers and went on against Eger castle. The memory of this shame still lives today. The castle remained in Turkish hands until 1685.
Szolnok became the center of a Turkish sanjak and unlike at other places, they began the construction of several typical Turkish buildings: they built a bath, a minaret, and a mosque in 1553. They made the first permanent bridge over the Tisza River in 1562. It was in Szolnok where they copied the only Turkish manuscript written in Hungary about the Hungarian campaigns of Suleiman the Great.
Castle of Gyula
https://www.google.hu/maps/place/Gyula/@46.63143,21.1542074,34184m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x4745d6912e572a0b:0xe643b29f4ae1ba5a
This was a stronghold on the Great Hungarian Plain, taken by Pasha Pertev in 1566. The siege lasted for two months and finally the defenders, led by captain László Kerecsényi, withdrew into the brick-built inner castle. At last he surrendered the castle in exchange for free passage but upon leaving the ruins, he and his soldiers were put to the sword.
For more than a century the castle had controlled the area between the Körös and the Maros Rivers. Gyula became a center of its sanjak that was divided into four parts: the Nahije of Arad, Békés, Zaránd and Bihar. The bey of Gyula ruled over these territories. The town had a mixed population of Turks and Hungarians. Using the stones of the surrounding areas' Christian churches as building materials, the Muslims erected two mosques, a ceremonial bath, and a turbe (tomb). This town was well-documented in the writings of Evlija Chelebi, the Turkish traveller who filled 10 thick books with his stories and descriptions between 1664-1666. On assignment for the Sublime Porte, he mustered almost all places of the Ottoman Empire during his forty years of service. He wrote of Gyula that it had "…two hundred shops and three churches in the outer town…it is a peculiar spectacle that everybody uses a boat when they visit each other from house to house, from garden to the mill." As the tax-paying Hungarian population was severely decreasing, the Turks tried to fill the numbers up with settlers from the South Slavic areas, giving them the abandoned villages, as they did elsewhere.
There is a village near Gyula, called Ajtós. It is known for the German-Hungarian who left for Germany in 1455 and became famous in Nurnberg: Albrecht Dürer's father. The word "Dürer" is the direct translation of the village's name, "Ajtós."
Castle and Town of Szeged
https://www.google.hu/maps/place/Szeged/@46.2327035,20.0003839,34435m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x474487e22bcce54b:0x400c4290c1e1190
The Habsburgs' army took the town from the Hungarian King Szapolyai in 1542 which made the Turks very angry. The Sultan punished the town's people rather severely for ceding the place to Ferdinand I when after the siege of 1543 he took over the castle. Later Szeged was put under the central treasury's command so the tax was paid directly to it there. It was more advantageous than the situation of Spahi-owned lands where the Spahies literally robbed the settlements while they were in their possessions. For this reason, the inhabitants of many villages moved to Szeged.
Castle of Kecskemét
https://www.google.hu/maps/place/Kecskem%C3%A9t/@46.8854731,19.5389723,34023m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x4743da6108f61c3f:0x400c4290c1e1180
The Turks captured it in 1541 and it was attached—luckily—to the Pasha of Buda so it was not a harassed and overtaxed Spahi dominion. Later, in 1565, Kecskemét also became a treasury-owned settlement so they could develop a more independent local authority in the city. Despite the constant wars, the city enjoyed relative peace and received many inhabitants running away from villages, eventually becoming the most significant settlement of the area between the River Danube and the River Tisza. The symbol of the city's privileges became a mysterious Turkish kaftan that had been given to the judge of the city to wear when the Turks would come to collect the taxes. The records of the city say: "It was in the year Anno Domini 1596 at the time of Eger castle's taking, when Sultan Muhamet II appeared in front of the city. The citizens of Kecskemét went before him with presents, giving him six hundred sheep, one hundred cattle and fourteen wagons of bread…and they begged the Sultan to send them a Bey to protect them from the armies. The Sultan gifted them with three hundred gold pieces and gave them a golden-woven kaftan, telling them to go home and they should put the coat on if someone wanted to hurt them. When later Turkish soldiers wanted to sack the city, the judge rode out in this kaftan. Amazingly, all the Turks paid respect immediately and left the city alone."
The city survived the one hundred and fifty years of Turkish rule quite intact but it was destroyed by Serbian attackers in 1707.
Castle of Cegléd
https://www.google.hu/maps/place/Cegl%C3%A9d/@47.2023411,19.6641268,33822m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x474170f3f82c3f27:0xa1db3b9918ea12e7
This became a Turkish-owned town right after the capture of Szolnok in 1553. It enjoyed more peace than most because it belonged directly to the Sultan. Many area villagers flocked there to find refuge. Cold, outdoor cattle-keeping became the main source of the living.
Cegléd joined an alliance with Kecskemét and Nagykörös in the 1550s and possessed a higher level of independence and local authority. Almost everybody was a Calvinist, and they had a Reformed college as well. They also seized the Catholics' church. The city prospered until the Fifteen Year War broke out in 1591. Due to the war, all the inhabitants ran away to Nagykőrös between 1596 and 1602. They were slowly coming back during the seventeenth century, and the economy was again flourishing but when the Turks were finally driven out, the people fled to Nagykőrös and Kecskemét in 1683. Kecskemét's growth is a very good example how indifferent and careless the Turks had been toward these half-conquered occupied territories. Gradually they allowed the local authorities to become almost as strong as they had been in the feudal Hungarian Kingdom. Kecskemét finally regained the right of punishment and granting pardon in the county. The Turks retained only the collection of the ever-increasing taxes. The Turks expected to get "gifts" which were not included in any laws but these bribes were needed if anybody wanted to achieve anything with the officials. These gifts were offered to the offices normally once a year, even if there were not any requests or complaints to be taken care of. Regardless of the city and the region's political masters, in the 1630s the Transylvanian prince as well as the Hungarian king, Ferdinand
, had been trying to extend their authority, and they imposed their claims by issuing documents that gave noblemen they endorsed ownership of territories long occupied by the Turks. The endorsed landlords could even take their feudal gift into their possessions—partly or wholly. For example, a nobleman called János (John) Lugossy received a property near Cegléd from the Transylvanian prince. After the death of this landlord the right to the property went to his heir, Imre Bercsényi, who was able to get a confirmation of this right from the Hungarian king Ferdinand in 1636. The tax-collecting of Hungarian landlords had become a regular and accepted habit by 1630 but sometimes Hungarian soldiers had to go with the wagons. The race for the taxes was not only about mere money—the Hungarians this way could interfere with the everyday life of the sultan's subjects.
Castle and City of Buda
https://www.google.hu/maps/place/Budai+vil%C3%A1jet/@47.4912542,18.8613312,33637m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x4741ddae1d8728f3:0xf41ed7fc34685421
Buda was the most important western frontier castle of the Ottoman Empire. Its pasha or begler bey had been the second-highest ranked person after the sultan, usually after the grand vizier. He was in charge of the Elayet of Buda—simultaneously the military commander and the leader of the civil administratio. Besides, he was authorized to conduct the diplomatic negotiations with the Habsburg powers. In the absence of the sultan or the grand vizier, the pasha of Buda was the leader of the entire Turkish army in Occupied Hungary. All the other elayets belonged under his rule. The pasha of Buda automatically received the rank of a vizier from 1623 on.
Grantville Gazette, Volume 69 Page 19