Hungarian Heritage Moment II - Siege of Eger

Eger is a small town in the hills of Hungary. There is a castle and a whole lot of wine, and their history is intertwined.

The Ottoman Turks arrived here in the 1552 with an army and laid siege to the castle. According to the narrative, 2,000 Hungarians successfully defended the castle against 100,000 Turks.

There are all manner of legends of this phenomenal feat: The defenders rebuilding the damaged walls every night after a day of fighting and the Hungarian women who poured hot pitch on the attackers. My favourite legend is about the local wine, which is called Egri Bikaver or Bull’s Blood.

After a hard day’s work defending the castle, the Hungarians would drink the region’s distinctive red wine, rather messily, because the next day their beards were red from the spilt wine. 

As the siege wore on for days, then weeks and then months, the Turks wondered how so few Hungarians could hold out against so many of them. Every day they fought ferocious Hungarians with beards stained red, so they figured they must be drinking bull’s blood because that’s the sort of things people assumed back then.

The Turks didn’t take the castle that time around, but they returned 50 years later, took the castle, occupied the town and built things, including a mosque and a minaret. The mosque is long gone, but the mineret is the only thing that remains from the Turks’ 100-year stay in Eger.

A few weeks back a colleague and I visited Eger. We walked around the narrow streets of the Old Town and wandered the castle keep. 

There's a Czech in the castle keep!

We climbed the minaret.

And looked down.

We visited the basilica, which we pretty much had to ourselves, but the view was better from the castle.

I also sipped the local wine – without getting in it my beard.

That's about it. Not that exciting, unless you're a history nerd.