Zalavár is a village in
Hungary, located in
Zala County. It is located around southwest of
Lake Balaton.
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 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 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 (''"Privinae civitas, munimen, castrum in nemore et palude Salae"'' in a
Salzburg chronicle). During the reign of Pribina's son, prince
Kocel (861-876), in the summer of 867, it provided short-term hospitality to brothers
Cyril and Methodius on their way from
Great Moravia to the pope in
Rome to justify the use of the
Slavonic language 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) 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, 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'' ''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
Lake Balaton.
Gallery
File:Millennial Monument in Zalavár.jpg, Millennial Monument (built by Imre Makovecz in 2009)
File:Scupltures of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Zalavár.jpg, Sculptures of Saints Cyril and Methodius (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