History paper by Petrovics, István
The Cities and Towns of Medieval Hungary as Economic and Cultural Centers and Places of Coexistence
Type of Abstract (select):Abstract (max. 250 words):
The independent Hungarian Kingdom (1000 -1526) was a multi-ethnic state. Part of the foreign ethnic groups living in Hungary were “native” inhabitants of the Carpathian Basin, that gave a geographical frame to this medieval state, while others arrived together with the conquering, mostly Finno-Ugrian Hungarians in the late ninth century. The most important component of foreign ethnic groups, however, arrived after the foundation of the state. The population density of the realm was low in the Middle Ages, and frequently the storms of history (e.g. the Mongol invasion), decimated the inhabitants of the country. Therefore the Hungarian kings invited foreign settlers to their realm in large numbers and provided them with numerous privileges. Before 1241/2 immigrants came to Hungary both from the Eastern (e.g. Jews, Ismaelithes, Patzinaks, Cumans) and the Western part of Europe (Walloons, Italians, Germans), but after the withdrawal of the Mongols only the influx of the Germans remained important. The overwhelming majority of the German hospites (guests) became urban burghers and played a decisive role in the process of medieval Hungarian urban development. The wealthiest towns of the realm were populated predominantly by Germans who were called in Transylvania and in the north-eastern part of the country, in the Spiš (Zips) region Saxons. The paper focuses first on the general features of medieval Hungarian urban development, then discusses the development of individual towns: Szeged, Pécs, Temesvár. The case of Pécs is particularly interesting, since it has a famous Roman heritage and it was one of the earliest and wealthiest of the episcopal seats of Hungary, and it is the European capital of culture in 2010.
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