You know how I love finding off the beaten path places. So today I took the train for a day trip to the little town of Eger. It’s in northern Hungary and while not known to tourists, Eger makes Hungarians proud as the town that, against all odds, successfully held off the Ottoman advance into Europe in 1552. Of course the Ottomans later went on to invent that relaxing foot rest called the ottoman (OK, again not true and another really corny joke!).
The town history is interesting. In the 16th century, Ottoman invaders swept into Hungary. They easily defeated a Hungarian army in just two hours at the Battle of Mohacs in 1526. When Budapest fell to the Ottomans in 1541, all of Europe looked to Eger as the last line of defense. Istavan Dobo was put in charge of Eger’s forces. They prepared the castle (which still overlooks Dobo Square) for a siege and waited. On Sept 11, 1552, after a summer spent conquering more than 30 other Hungarian fortresses on their march northward, 40,000 Ottomans arrived in Eger. Only about 2,000 Egerites (soldiers, their wives and children) remained to protect the town. The Ottomans expected an easy victory, but the siege went on for 39 days. Eger’s soldiers fought valiantly, and the women of Eger also joined in the fray pouring hot tar down on the Ottomans. Ultimately, the Ottomans left in shame, Eger was saved, and Dobo was a National hero (I included a pic of his statue with the castle in the background). A book of the siege, translated into English as “Eclipse of the Crescent Moon”, is taught in the Hungarian schools keeping the legend of Eger’s heroes alive today.
Well to be honest, I didn’t come for the history, but for the quaint little town that was very pleasing to the eye. It had one of the most beautiful Baroque churches (called the Minorite Church), the northernmost Ottoman minaret in Europe (the slender, 130 foot tall spire) which once was a mosque, the huge Eger Cathedral (second largest in Hungary – I included pics from front and above to show how huge), the Eger Castle, and the very interesting Lyceum with a library and astronomy equipment.
The Lyceum also has an interesting history. In the mid-18th century, Bishop Karoly Eszterhazy wanted a university in Eger, but Habsburg Emperor Josef II refused to allow it. Instead, Eszterhazy built the most impressive teacher-training college on the planet and stocked it with the best books and astronomy equipment that money could buy. The Lyceum still trains local teachers with an enrollment of about 2,000. I got to see the massive library of 60,000 books in 30 languages (no pics allowed). Only 1% of the books are in Hungarian but over half are in Latin.
But the coolest part was all the way on the top floor in this dark room was what they called the “camera obscura” – one of just two originals surviving in Europe (the other in Edinburgh, Scotland). About 8 of us gathered around this round white table in this pitch dark room (thought we were getting ready for a seance!) and the guide proceeded to show us the streets of Eger projected on to the table. She would pull these different levers hanging down from the ceiling to zoom in on things. She explained that there were mirrors and convex glass in the roof that projected the outside image on to the table. It was a really clear day so the images were crystal clear. This thing must have astonished people when it was built back in 1776 since this was well before anyone had seen “moving pictures”.
Well that’s all for now. I’m excited to finally tour the big Parliament building on my last day tomorrow in Budapest.
Happy Tuesday!
Jeff
The Wandering Italian 