Eger [antikvár]

The town of Eger is situated at the northern end of the Great Hungárián Plain, among the smoothly tiered vineyards and hills at the foot of the hazy Bükk Mountains. The surroundings of Eger are varied and beautiful. North of the town the Eger brook rushes down the valley from the mountains, and widens out, while the far-reaching chain of hills supplies a suitable background to the red roofs and many towers of Eger. Behind the hills, standing like sentries on guard, there are the round shaped Nagyeged and the steep Várhegy mountains pointing to the sky. The caves near Eger were inhabited by men in prehistoric times, and the remnants of prehistoric settlements were found in the upper regions of the highland, in the valleys and on the hills. In the Bronzé and Iron Ages several earthworks and mounds were built in these regions and used to defend the inhabitants of the scattered settlements. According to an old chronicle the conquering Hungarians "arrived from the East and reached the water of Eger. They built huts there and stayed for several days. . . then they continued their advance..." The conquerors used the forests with their marshy tracts as a temporary resting place and hunting area, for there was no úrban settlement there at that time. The first Hungárián king, Stephen I, set up one of the first of five episcopacies in the area around the year ioio. The site of the present castle became the centre of the Eger diocese, which covered the whole of the north-eastern part of the country. The first cathedral was built together with the episcopal palace, but only a few stone remnants of these buildings have survived... In 1241, the Tartars destroyed and demolished the buildings situated on the hills, and looted the Romanesque style cathedral. At that time Eger had no stone fortress. The first fortress was built following the Tartar invasion. Engravings which date from the Middle Ages illustrate the Gothic style buildings of the castle, and the houses in the town, which were built below the castle. The large-scale planting of grape-vines started in the fourteenth century on the neighbouring hills.