Parkan (castle)
The Fort of Parkan (full name Ciğerdelen parkan meaning "liver-stabbing fort" in Turkish, shortened to Çekerden) was a fortified outpost built by the Ottoman Empire in 1546 on the northern banks of the Danube opposite the city of Estergon. It lost its military role after the Great Turkish War and was soon demolished. The fort was located on the territory of present-day Štúrovo, Slovakia.
History
[edit]The Ottomans built a small fortress (parkan) near the destroyed medieval village of Kakath as part of the defense system of Estergon shortly after they captured the city in 1543. The natural crossing of the Danube near the mouth of the Hron had a strategic role, and the outpost provided a safe base for Ottoman raiders sent north into the Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary.
The construction of the new fort was reported by Pál Várdai, the Archbishop of Strigonium, in his letter to the seven mining towns of Lower Hungary on September 22, 1546: "You know how dangerous this region is, especially opposite Strigonium, due to the new castle being built very close by."[1] The construction of the outpost was probably completed that year or the next.
The fortress was modest in size. The number of garrison troops was recorded in the Ottoman pay lists (mevacib defterleri). The first one in 1549-50 listed 59 regular soldiers (müstahfıza) and two officers; the commandant (dizdar) was Kurd bin Yusuf. In 1558 the garrison was still commanded by the same dizdar, and consisted of 67 soldiers and two officers but this force was supplemented by 242 azebs (light infantry soldiers). In 1568-69 the number of garrison troops decreased to 241 (72 regular soldiers, 124 azebs and 45 martolos ie. Christian irregulars).[2]
In 1586-87 the garrison was commanded by Skender dizdar; the troops consisted regular soldiers (20 müstahfıza and two officers), artillerymen (8 topçi and one aga), azebs (115 soldiers and 5 officers) and martolos (25-30 Turkish and Serb soldiers and two officers). Although the garrison was not large in number, the presence of artillerymen suggests that the fort had been provided with cannons by the 1580s. A caretaker (kayyım), a muezzin and a teacher (maarif) were also listed which shows that the parkan already had a mosque at this time.[3]
The area north of the Danube was a contested borderland between the two empires. During raids, the Ottomans of Parkan regularly clashed with the soldiers of the nearest Hungarian border fortress, Újvár. Such clashes were recorded, among others, in 1557 and 1570.[4]
Architecture
[edit]The 16th-century outpost was a rectangular wooden fortress on the north bank of the Danube. Its original appearance can be inferred from a drawing made by Jacob Hoefnagel who must have visited the area in 1595 after Gran was recaptured by the Habsburg army.[5] The fort of Parkan was completely destroyed in the siege but it can be seen that it was surrounded on three sides by a moat filled with the water of the Danube, and there were buildings inside, of which Hoefnagel could only see the ruins. The main defensive structure was a simple palisade without towers.
References
[edit]- ^ Cited by Lajos Némethy in Emléklapok Esztergom múltjából, Esztergom-vidéki Régészeti és Történelmi Társulat, Esztergom, 1900, pp. 82-83
- ^ Magyarországi török kincstári defterek, translated by Antal Velics, Vol. 2, Budapest, M. Tud. Akadémia Történelmi Bizottsága, 1890, p. 85; p. 230, p. 384
- ^ Magyarországi török kincstári defterek, translated by Antal Velics, Vol. 1, Budapest, M. Tud. Akadémia Történelmi Bizottsága, 1886, pp. 347-349
- ^ Kálmán Haiczl: Ghyczy György, Oláh-Ujvár hadi népeinek főkapitánya. Nemzeti Kultúra III, pp. 42-54
- ^ Kees Teszelszky: Magyarország és Erdély képe Németalföldön a Bocskai-felkelés és Bethlen Gábor hadjáratai idején, in Bethlen Gábor és Európa (eds. Gábor Kárman and Kees Teszelszky), Budapest, 2013, p. 241
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