Zalavár is a village in

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

, located in Zala

County A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

. It is located around southwest of

Lake Balaton Lake Balaton () is a freshwater lake in the Transdanubian region of Hungary. It is the largest lake in Central Europe, and one of the region's foremost tourist destinations. The Zala River provides the largest inflow of water to the lake, and th ...

Name

According to written sources the settlement was called 'Mosapurc' in the 9th century, "''Mosapurc regia civitate''". It was also known as ''Moosburg'', ''Urbs Paludarum'', ''Braslavespurch'' and ''Blatengrad'' in medieval records. The medieval settlement is known in modern sources as ''Blatnohrad'' ( Slovak), ''Blatnograd'', Блатноград (

Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and ...

and

Bulgarian Bulgarian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria * Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group * Bulgarian language, a Slavic language * Bulgarian alphabet * A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria * Bul ...

Ján Kollár Ján Kollár ( hu, Kollár János; 29 July 1793 – 24 January 1852) was a Slovak writer (mainly poet), archaeologist, scientist, priest, politician, and main ideologist of Pan-Slavism. Life He studied at the Lutheran Lyceum in Pressburg ( ...

called it ''Salavár'' in his travel book and described the state of the ruins in 1841.

History

In the 9th century, ''Mosapurc'' or ''Moosburg'' was a fortified settlement built at the

Zala river The Zala is a river in south-western Hungary. Its source is in the hills northwest of Szalafő near the borders with Austria and Slovenia. Its length is and drains water from . Several smaller rivers feed into it, including the Felső-Válic ...

and was the capital of the Frankish vassal Lower Pannonian Principality ruled by a Slavic prince

Pribina Pribina (c. 800861) was a Slavic prince whose adventurous career, recorded in the '' Conversion of the Bavarians and the Carantanians'' (a historical work written in 870), illustrates the political volatility of the Franco–Slavic fronti ...

(''"Privinae civitas, munimen, castrum in nemore et palude Salae"'' in a

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian) is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the ...

chronicle). During the reign of Pribina's son, prince

Kocel Kocelj ( 861–874) was a ruler of the Slavs in Lower Pannonia. He was an East Frankish vassal titled ''comes'' (count), and is believed to have ruled between 861 or 864 and 876. Life Kocelj was the second son of Pribina, a Slavic ''dux'' install ...

(861-876), in the summer of 867, it provided short-term hospitality to brothers

Cyril and Methodius Cyril (born Constantine, 826–869) and Methodius (815–885) were two brothers and Byzantine Christian theologians and missionaries. For their work evangelizing the Slavs, they are known as the "Apostles to the Slavs". They are credited wit ...

on their way from

Great Moravia Great Moravia ( la, Regnum Marahensium; el, Μεγάλη Μοραβία, ''Meghálī Moravía''; cz, Velká Morava ; sk, Veľká Morava ; pl, Wielkie Morawy), or simply Moravia, was the first major state that was predominantly West Slavs, Wes ...

to the pope in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

to justify the use of the

Slavonic language The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavs, Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic language, Proto ...

as a liturgical language. They and their disciples turned Blatnograd into one of the centers that spread the knowledge of the new Slavonic script (

Glagolitic alphabet The Glagolitic script (, , ''glagolitsa'') is the oldest known Slavic alphabet. It is generally agreed to have been created in the 9th century by Saint Cyril, a monk from Thessalonica. He and his brother Saint Methodius were sent by the Byzan ...

) and literature, educating numerous future missionaries in their native language.

Battle of Pressburg

Specialists claim that ''Urbs Paludarum'', Brazlavo's burg (Moosburg), was the place of the

Battle of Pressburg The Battle of Pressburg (german: Schlacht von Pressburg) or Battle of Pozsony ( hu, Pozsonyi csata), or Battle of Bratislava ( sk, Bitka pri Bratislave) was a three-day-long battle, fought between 4–6 July 907, during which the East Francian arm ...

, instead of

Bratislava Bratislava (, also ; ; german: Preßburg/Pressburg ; hu, Pozsony) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000 — approxim ...

. The only contemporary source mentioning a location of the battle is the ''

Annales iuvavenses The ''Annales iuvavenses'' or Annals of Salzburg were a series of annals written in the 9th and 10th centuries at Salzburg (the former Roman ''Iuvavum'') in the East Frankish stem duchy of Bavaria. They are a useful source for southeastern Germany ...

'' ''maximi'' (Annals of Salzburg); however, the reliability of these annals is questionable, as they survive only in fragments copied in the 12th century. According to the annals the battle took place in the vicinity of Brezalauspurc, the castle of Duke Brazlavo, located west of

Gallery

File:Millennial Monument in Zalavár.jpg, Millennial Monument (built by

Imre Makovecz Imre Makovecz (November 20, 1935 – September 27, 2011) was a Hungarian architect active in Europe from the late 1950s onward. Makovecz was born and died in Budapest. He attended the Technical University of Budapest. He was founder and "eter ...

in 2009) File:Scupltures of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Zalavár.jpg, Sculptures of Saints

(erected in 2013) File:Tree of Life in the Millenial Monument.jpg, Tree of Life in the Millennial Monument (erected in 2011)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zalavar Populated places in Zala County