Сигетвар қаласының тарихы мен ескерткіштері

Szigetvár (; ; Zigetvar; Inselburg, Großsiget) is a town in Baranya County in southern Hungary [hu]. The name is a compound word composed of Sziget (Island) + vár (castle). In October 2011, the city received the title Civitas Invicta from the Hungarian Parliament. Today it has a population of 12,000.

The city and its vicinity were inhabited in prehistoric times, which is confirmed by the Neolithic and Bronze Age archaeological findings (stone axes, net weights, bones) found here. After Celtic, Roman, and Avar rule, the area was conquered by the Hungarians by 900 AD.

The origin of a settlement by the name “Zygeth” dates back to 1391 when a wealthy Greek family named Anthemi settled in the nearby hills and forests, probably after fleeing the Osmanlı conquest of the lands between Edirne (Adrianople) and Plovdiv in the 1360s. The fortress of Sziget had its start in 1420 when Ozsvát Anthemi (aka Oswald Antheminus or Antimus) built the first brick buildings on a hill named Lázár Island in the floodplain (marshland) of the Almás River. The brick buildings enclosed a courtyard, and later a three story (14 metres) high round stone tower was built. Over the decades, Ozsvát built strong ramparts and moats around the brick buildings which become the inner core of the Citadel. By 1449, there was a castrum (castle) and by 1463, a oppidum (field town), which was small town. In 1463, after Ozsvát’s death, Sziget was given to the Garai family and, by 1473, it was in the possession of Ambrus Török de Enying, After Ambrus' death, in 1491, Sziget was inherited by his son Imre and in 1521 inherited by Bálint Török [hu], who, by 1530, expanded it, strengthened it, and turned it into a true stronghold. The Inner Castle (Citadel) was expanded and reinfoced by bastions at the corners, and a drawbridge connected the Inner and Outer citadels. The marshland surrounding Sziget was turned into an artificial lake by the use of a moat system that channeled water from the Almás stream. Bálint Török's fortified island estate was significant not only as a military base, but also as an intellectual base for the hinterland: Sebestyén Lantos Tinódi, the Hungarian creator of the genre of historical song, lived here until 1542, and Pál Istvánffy, the first Hungarian poet, had a house here the author of a poetic short story, and his son Miklós Istvánffy, a humanist historian, grew up here.

Some other monuments in the town date back to Ottoman times. Two years after the siege, the mosque of Ali Pasha was built, later – in 1788 – to be transformed into a Christian church: the Roman Catholic parish church. The two minarets, as well as the windows and niches with ogee arches indicate its original function. The Turkish House of red raw brick walls and interlaced steel window grills in Bástya Street was originally destined to be a caravanserai. The two holy water basins of the Franciscan Church were made of Turkish washbasins. The carved main altar of the Baroque Church is another sight to see. In 1966, on the 400th anniversary of the siege, Szigetvár regained its old rank of a chartered ancient city. Development began to gather speed. In 1994, the Hungarian Turkish Friendship Park (Magyar Török Barátság Park) was established as a public park, dedicated in memorial to the Battle of Szigetvár. Archaeological digs conducted by the University of Pécs starting in 2016 revealed the tomb of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in the nearby destroyed settlement of Turbék. For more about the history of Szigetvar in the 19th and 20th centuries, see the Hungarian Wikipedia article on Szigetvar.