Szőny was a port town in

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, 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 and ...

on the south side of the Danube River. Since 1977, it has been absorbed as part of the city of Komárom.

History

The Roman legion Legio I Adiutrix was based in Szőny from 86 AD to the mid-5th century and took part in several Parthian wars. The town has had many different names at different times. The town was known as to the Romans, and was the site of the death of Roman Emperor

Valentinian I Valentinian I (; 32117 November 375), also known as Valentinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 364 to 375. He ruled the Western Roman Empire, Western half of the empire, while his brother Valens ruled the Byzantine Empire, East. During his re ...

in 375 AD. An important Roman military diploma was found in the town in the early twentieth century, and it is now in the collection of the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

. During the Middle Ages, the town was called ''Camarum''. The town has one of the earliest records of conjoined twins: Helen and Judith. The town's name was first mentioned in a charter in 1211 as Sun. In 1249, it was named Sceun, mentioned for being the village of the

Archbishop of Esztergom In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdioc ...

. King Béla IV traded the town for another village. In 1269 it was mentioned as terra Sceun, in 1397 as possessio Zyun, and in 1422 as villa Zwn, a Komárom castle estate. By 1460, it was oppidum Zwny; a town whose customs and income belonged to the Komárom castle. It was destroyed by the Ottomans in 1592. On 12 September 1627, Emperor Ferdinand II and the Turkish Sultan made the Peace of Szőnyi here.Gévay: A szőnyi békekötés cikkelyei (Bécs/Vienna 1837) The peace document was issued in three languages: Hungarian, Latin, and Turkish, and reaffirmed the 1606 Zsitvatorok, 1615 Vienna, 1618 Komárom, and 1625 colonial treaties. During the 1848-49 revolution and war of independence, several major battles took place within the boundaries of the village. At the beginning of the 20th century, several pieces of cannonballs fired during the siege of Komárom were still visible in the wall of the Catholic church. During the oil campaign of World War II, the Szőny oil refinery was a strategic bombing target by the Allies.

References

Oil campaign of World War II Former municipalities of Hungary Roman settlements in Hungary Komárom Roman legionary fortresses in Hungary Roman fortifications in Pannonia Superior {{Hungary-geo-stub