Simontornya Castle, built in the 13th century, stood its ground like a battle-hardened soldier for centuries, holding firm in the heat of the destruction by its enemies and withstanding the test of time. Its body of old bricks is dotted with many old scars and wounds, which, although they detract from its splendor, reveal countless exciting details and tell interesting stories that bring us closer to learning about the history of the castle.
At the beginning of the 18th century, it seemed that its fate was finally sealed, because it was planned to be blown up, but at the request of the Styrum-Lymburg family loyal to the Habsburgs, it was left intact. Two Counts of the Styrum family lived in the castle, as no other habitable house was available to them at the time, but after the construction of their new mansion, it was converted into a granary and used only for economic purposes. Thus, in the 1930s, the Abbey of Zirc bought it and leased it to the tannery of Simontornya. The castle became a tannery warehouse, and the semi-gable roof annex buildings built next to it became emergency housing.
The OMF began the excavation and restoration of the building in 1960 under the direction of archaeologist Erzsébet Lócsy and architect Miklós Horler.
It was partially restored between 1964 and 1974, of the castle's former buildings, the gate tower, old tower and staircase block on the south side, and the former palace wing on the east side still stand today, preserving interesting forgotten details of its past on its walls. A modern protective building was built over the remains of the completely destroyed northern wing, while the western wing was not rebuilt.
In the first construction period of Simontornya castle, we created a gate tower on the north side (as the excavation plan suggests), with a small, angular barbican protecting the gate (which is highly hypothetical due to the lack of data), while on the south side we depicted the old tower, whose wall remains can still be identified today. In accordance with the customs of the time, the castle received a plastered and whitewashed surface, with a wooden shingle shell on top. The contemporary form of Szigetvár castle was very similar (the early square-plan knight's castle), but interesting analogies can also be found in Western Europe, for example Mauvezin castle in France.
Based on archaeological research, the rectangular castle was surrounded by a curved, battlemented outer wall in the 14th century, while the main gate opened on the lower level of the old tower. The eastern palace wing was built in this period also. The building still has a plastered, whitewashed and shingled exterior design.
In the 15th century, the building did not change significantly, only the half-roofed loggia was added, which was built next to the western wing of the palace.
Between the western wall of the rectangular castle and the curved wall running outside it, you can see today a zwinger. However, there are several things that prove that this was not a zwinger, but a western palace wing, by which the palace wings of the castle formed a circle and created a closed courtyard. The partition walls of the rooms of this wing were found during the excavations, but only their foundations and the floor coverings of the corresponding walking levels.
A well was found in one of the outer buttresses of the western wall, which indicates that a kitchen could have been used in the room on the other side of the wall. The lack of hygiene knowledge of the time is indicated by the fact that a latrine cesspool was found right next to the well buttress, so a latrine jutting out of the wall could also be located on this wing of the building.
An outer wall was built around the western palace wing, which was earlier - falsely - identified as a counterscarp wall of a castle moat. In fact, the moat did not run directly under the castle walls, except on the southern side. The building was not only improved in terms of the palace wings compared to the state of the previous century, the new gate tower, old tower and the associated staircase were also built in the 16th century.
The stronghold, which withstood several serious sieges, lost its military significance after the fall of Rákóczi’s War of Independence. After the War of Independence, the castle began to fall into disrepair, it was also used as a warehouse and a residential building. Its new owner, the Styrum Limburg family, lived in the castle for only a short time, then transformed it into a manor granary. After the extinction of the Styrum family, the castle passed into the hands of the Esterházys, the Sina banker family, and then the Count Wimpffen family.
In the 18th century, the castle received wall cladding in a few places, some windows were converted into portholes, and the eastern side was joined with a building wing. A new floor was built on the third level of the old tower, which is still visible today.
The castle in Simontornya in its present form, although it has been restored, still retains many damages and traces on its walls, with the help of which we can deduce with great certainty the former appearance of the building. Archaeologist and art historian Gergely Buzás assisted in the interpretation of the traces, with whom we examined every corner of the castle and carefully processed the received data. With the help of the experience gained in this way, we attempted to create the most authentic theoretical reconstruction of Simontornya castle ever made. We will examine these details step by step below.
The plaster on the walls of the building has been preserved in excellent condition in many places, while the original decorative painting of the old tower can still be seen in the stairwell tower connected to the eastern side of the old tower. This is an exciting discovery because the stairwell tower was built later than the old tower, so its original, once outside western side became the inside of the stairwell tower. The brick pattern created with red and white paints, which can be seen here, could once have decorated the entire old tower. It is interesting that the building, which was already built of bricks, was plastered over and the brick pattern was repainted.
The uppermost level of the castle towers has a wooden, cantilevered defense level. The 16-17. century, the old tower was plastered with the yellowish mortar that can still be seen today, but the beams of the mentioned wooden structure were plastered around, so their imprints still clearly reveal the location of the former wooden beams. The same imprints also show on the side facing the courtyard that the upper loggia of the palace wings ran to the western end of the gate tower building. Don't be fooled by the top level of the castle that stands today, which did not exist in the Middle Ages, it was added in the 18th century. The original tower wall only reached the upper level of the plaster remains, above that was the timber-framed level.
The top level of the new gate tower built next to the old tower is a so called fachwerk structure, or in other words, a structure consisting of timber-frames with wattle and daub. This is indicated not only by the remaining beam nests on the wall of the old tower, but also by the lack of notches, which could lead to the conclusion of a brick or stone wall. Only the remnants of a thin wall can be seen, which stood backwards from the southern facade of the gate tower, suggests that it served as a protective wall behind a cantilevered, wooden protective corridor.
At the northwest end of the inner courtyard, an arch can still be seen at the height of the ground level, which indicates that there must have been a cellar entrance, to which a clerestory walled staircase led down. The building still has a basement, but these passages date back to the Baroque era.
The thick notched strip visible on the west wall of the gate tower shows that the building was originally intended to be extended in the western direction, but in the end this was abandoned and the end wall of the western palace wing was connected to the corner of the building. The latter is fragmented and ruined, while the western one is beautiful and regular. From this we can see that one is deliberately abandoned masonry, while the other is the remains of a wall that once stood.
planned,
but not executed
building parts
The exterior of the building was given a uniform plastered surface and black block paint, so that the plastered wall imitates nice regular masonry blocks. Details of this painting can still be seen in large patches on the walls of the castle.
When we make a theoretical reconstruction of a former building, it is not only the building itself that matters, since it was created organically blending into the landscape and forms a kind of harmony with its surroundings, and without creating this, it is not possible to recall its former appearance. Thus, we have to conduct research on the topography, hydrography, flora and fauna of the surrounding landscape, and the areas used by people at that time.
A striking detail of the depiction of Simon's Tower, known from Brickenstein's engraving book, is that the castle was drawn on top of a prominent mountain. Obviously, such errors are common in the case of castle depictions of the time, because in many cases the maker never visited the site, and often supplemented the castles drawn from hearsay according to his own imagination.
But what was the area around Simontornya really like in the Middle Ages? When creating the historical landscape, we carefully develop an area of 10 km x 10 km with the castle in the center, while the surrounding 50 km2 landscape is only shown on a rough scale, thus allowing us to see an uninterrupted landscape all the way to the horizon.
When preparing a landscape reconstruction, the first step is to delimit the area to be investigated on today's satellite map and georeference it in a GIS system. In simple terms, it means that, for example, old maps, archival aerial photos, modern satellite images, or excavation site maps are placed on top of each other in layers, where the individual coordinates are matched to each other, thereby distorting the geographically inaccurate drawings in such a way that the locations shown on them are placed in their real spatial "place".
The collection of 18th and early 19th century maps of the conditions before the regulation of the rivers Síó and Sárvíz proved to be extremely useful. With their help, we got closer to getting to know the former hydrography of the Simontornya area.
In the swampy, floodplain area, the numerous outstanding islands offered an excellent strategic opportunity, the first castle of Simontornya was built on the largest of them, which was created to control the embankment and bridges crossing the difficult-to-penetrate water mass. During the 13th century, the Carpathian basin was characterized by an even drier climate, so the extent of the flood plains was more restrained. compared to the wetter period caused by the Little Ice Age.
Relying on the remaining certificates and the results of archaeological research, we were able to attempt the reconstruction of the villages in the area. The researches of András K. Németh and János Ódor proved to be extremely useful in terms of the exact localization of the settlements, we were able to establish the period in which the individual villages were created and how long they were inhabited. In many cases, we were also able to determine the location of the village parish church.
When identifying the villages, we were often helped by the descriptions in the certificates, but the place names that have survived to this day can also refer to medieval conditions, for example the Szent Péter vineyard hill, which can be read on the first military survey, was certainly once the vineyard hill of the medieval village of Szent Péter. A medieval village was excavated nearby, and it can be identified with the village. Some villages, such as Sáregres, were rebuilt several kilometers away after their destruction, while other villages, such as Menyőd or Börd, simply merged into the expanding market town of Simontornya.
2024
see-the-unseen.com
