Kőszeg - Jurisics Castle - Upper Castle 16 (16X9)
The former Landowner’s Castle surrounded by town-wall and the moat is situated in the north-western corner of the inner city. In the Castle Courtyard, the earliest remnants of the former pile-dwelling were found. After the Siege by the Tatars in mid-13th century, they started to build this lower castle in the valley beside the settlement. This lower castle substituted the former upper castle’s role in the middle age, as the upper old castle was too complicate to be approached for trade and administration.
The castle have two distinct parts: the Outer and the Inner Castle. The guards and the service personnel of the castle was settled in the buildings of the Outer Castle. At the end of the 13th Century its owner was the Heder family. Prince Habsburg Albert took the castle in 1289. Andrew III, the last king of the Hungarian Arpad House ruined the upper old castle int he Kőszeg hills, according to the terms of the Hainburg treaty.

In 1327 the Anjou king Carlo Roberto took the castle from the family Kőszegi after harsh years of fightings. He gave strong royal privilages to the town after his victory. Town walls with strong towers were built protecting Kőszeg against the onslaughts of the Austrians. The water of the river Güns (Gyöngyös) was directed into the moats around the castle walls. The castle went to the Garai family in 1392, then to the Habsburg family until the renessiance Hungarian King Mathias Corvinus took it back in 1482. The Habsburgs took Kőszeg again after the death of Mathias in 1492.

The most wellknown Siege of Kőszeg happened in 1532, when the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman attacked Kőszeg fiercly with his 80 thousands soldiers on his way to Wien. The Captain and Protector of the Castle, Nikolaus Jurisich has its sculpture today in the outer courtyard. Even today, there is a festive 11 o’clock bell-ring in Kőszeg conmemorating the ending of the month-long, unsuccessful Ottoman Siege in 1532.
A brick bridge over the moat leads us to the inner castle. Just next to the gate we can find the traditional herb-garden of the castle, together with a smal handicraft shop, the Nature Shop where one can buy the traditional products of the Kőszeg region and the Írottkő Nature Park. A nicely planned inner court receives us behind the gates. A rich Castle Exchibition is located in the southern and eastern wings. Centuries of Kőszeg exhibition, the Royal Crown Room, the Golden Room and Armoury awaits the visitors. The renessiance corridor and the Cavalier’s Room gives place to numerous cultural events and to various art exchibitions.
kőszeg hungary jurisicscastle castle architecture fortification fortress hrad vár