Castle Casemate – Lapidarium

Győr, as the seat of the bailiwick, has been a fortified place since the time of St Stephen (1000-1038). The medieval castle enclosed the present-day Chapter Hill. The strategic position of the town was enhanced during the Turkish occupation in the 16th century, when it played a key role in defending the road to Vienna as the most powerful fortification on the line of the outer ramparts. It was the most important defence of Vienna as the main artery of the imperial city and a bastion of Christianity. In 1537, on the orders of Emperor-King Ferdinand I, a major fortification project lasting around 40 years was begun, which involved the construction of a wall around the entire city, protected by seven bastions and a half-bastion. The bastions, built of burnt brick, were used to form caissons in which the defensive cannons were placed, covering the adjacent bastions and walls with flanking fire. The bastions were connected by caissons running through the walls. The plans, conceived in the spirit of the most modern principles of military architecture, were drawn up and supervised by Italian master builders Francisco Benigno, Bernardo Gabelli, Pietro Ferabosco and Bernardo de Magno. Today, all that remains of the huge fortress is the Castle Bastion surrounding the Chapter Hill and the Sforza half-bastion protecting the former Vienna Gate. The Lapidarium is located in the casemates and courtyard of the latter. The castle walls once had three late-Renaissance gates, demolished in the mid-19th century. The most representative was the triple-arched Vienna Gate (1568), reminiscent of an ancient triumphal arch, modelled on a gate design from a model book by the influential Italian architectural theorist Sebastiano Serlio. The gateway was once decorated with the imperial coat of arms of the Emperor with two eagles, the Hungarian royal coat of arms with a cut field, the Czech royal coat of arms with a lion, and an inscription plaque with the titles of Emperor-King Miklós II. Fragments of them, as well as a fragment of the Doric cornice of the Water Gate (1567), can be seen under the vaults of the kazamata courtyard.

The key fortress was occupied by the Turks in 1594 after a long siege. But they could only rejoice for their new conquest for a short time: on the night of March 28 to 29, 1598, the imperial troops took the castle back during a raid-like attack. The Christian army led by Adolf von Schwarzenberg and Miklós Pálffy blew up the Fehérvár Gate with firecrackers: the people of Győr have been guarding the destroyed gate wing as a relic of liberation for centuries.

With the development of military architecture, it became necessary to modernize the fortifications again by the middle of the 17th century. According to the plans of military engineer F. Wymes, under the command of Count Montecuccoli, this took place in the years between 1661 and 1664: a double chain of external vanguards was built into the widened castle moat.

With the end of the Turkish wars, by the beginning of the 18th century, Győr Castle lost its military importance. During the Napoleonic Wars, the castle briefly re-entered the castle: the French troops occupied it after a few days of siege after the Battle of Kismegyer, and then blew up the walls when they retreated (1809). In the decades that followed, the city also demolished the remaining walls.

Since 1957, the castle's courtyard and dungeon has hosted a permanent exhibition organized from the Roman and early modern quarry and the brick collection of József Horváth.