Zalavár is a village in south-western

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 ...

, located in Zala

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

. It is located around southwest of

Lake Balaton Lake Balaton () is a freshwater rift lake in the Transdanubian region of Hungary. It is the List of largest lakes of Europe, largest lake in Central Europe, and one of the region's foremost tourist destinations. The Zala River provides the larges ...

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 known as Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS), is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. It is a pluricentric language with four mutually i ...

and Bulgarian). 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 along the Zala river 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 Salzburg is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020 its population was 156,852. The city lies on the Salzach, Salzach River, near the border with Germany and at the foot of the Austrian Alps, Alps moun ...

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 Cyril (; born Constantine, 826–869) and Methodius (; born Michael, 815–885) were brothers, Population of the Byzantine Empire, Byzantine Christian theologians and Christian missionaries, missionaries. For their work evangelizing the Slavs ...

on their way from

Great Moravia Great Moravia (; , ''Meghálī Moravía''; ; ; , ), or simply Moravia, was the first major state that was predominantly West Slavic to emerge in the area of Central Europe, possibly including territories which are today part of the Czech Repub ...

to the pope in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

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 The Glagolitic script ( , , ''glagolitsa'') is the oldest known Slavic alphabet. It is generally agreed that it was created in the 9th century for the purpose of translating liturgical texts into Old Church Slavonic by Saints Cyril and Methodi ...

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

Battle of Pressburg

It is claimed that ''Urbs Paludarum'', Brazlavo's burg (Moosburg), was the site of the Battle of Pressburg, instead of

Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...

. 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 ( Braslav), located west of

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

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

Name

History

Battle of Pressburg

Gallery

References

Further reading