Foreign Ethnic Groups and Urban Development in the Medieval Kingdom of Hungary: the Cases of Temesvár/Timişoara and Szeged
Foreign Ethnic Groups and Urban Development in the Medieval Kingdom of Hungary: the Cases of Temesvár/Timişoara and Szeged

Summary/Abstract: The paper consists of four parts, of which the first serves as an introductory “chapter”, dealing with the role of foreign ethnic groups, mostly Latins and Germans, in the process of urban development in the medieval Kingdom of Hungary. It also examines the term hospes, stressing that the meaning of this word went through profound changes in the eleventh to the thirteenth century. The second part of the paper discusses the history of Temesvár/Timisoara, centre of Temes county, located south of the River Maros/Mures and about 80 kms from Szeged. The author stresses that Temesvár was originally a comital castle, where Charles I, King of Hungary found a temporary residence between 1315 and 1323. Nevertheless, the development of the town was severely impeded by the Turkish victory at Nicopolis in 1396, which resulted in Temesvár/Timisoara and the region around it becoming the permanent target of Ottoman onslaughts. The third part of the paper deals with the history of Szeged, located at the confluence of the rivers Tisza and Maros/Mures. The development of Szeged, which had become by the late fifteenth century one of the richest and most populous royal towns of Hungary, may serve, according to the author, as an analogy, in several respects, to the history of Temesvár/Timisoara. In the fourth part, containing the conclusions, the author states that no populous communities of Walloons, Germans or other foreign ethnic groups played an important role in the development of the towns of Szeged and Temesvár/Timisoara in the Middle Ages. The author also stresses that the Hungarian burghers of these towns spread the urban way of life and urban institutions in general, among the non-Hungarian peoples (Serbs, Romanians) of the southern regions of the realm and even beyond its borders.

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