Nándorfehérvár hőse: Dugovics Titusz
A Medieval Hero: Titusz Dugovics

Summary/Abstract: A medieval hero, Titusz Dugovics, is the embodiment of self-sacrifice in Hungarian historical remembrance. When in the summer of 1456, Sultan Mehmed II laid siege to Nándorfehérvár (today: Belgrad, Serbia) on July 21, Titusz Dugovics, one of the defenders of the castle, got involved in a confrontation with a Turk soldier, who had climbed a tower and wanted to put on the Ottoman flag. As he was unable to prevent him from doing so in any another way, Dugovics dragged the Turk down with himself, and they both fell to their deaths. Nevertheless, the act was documented only in one medieval source, in Antonio Bonfini’s chronicle, where an anonymous solider is mentioned. The name was invented by Imre Dugovics in 1821, when he presented three false documents about it. A recognised scholar of the period, Gábor Döbrentei, had been deceived by these false documents, and published them. With this Titusz Dugovics soon became a part of Hungarian historical consciousness, although this name is an early 19th-century fiction.

• Details
• Contents