The building of palisades and palisaded castles in Ottoman Hungary – Case studies

Abstract

During the period of Ottoman rule in Hungary (1541‒1686), palisaded castles of differing sizes were typical elements in the border-castle networks on both sides of the battlefront: the Ottoman and the Christian. Archaeological remains (post-holes, beam structures, parts of palisades) complement the data in the written sources, making perceptible and measurable the great quantities of timber used in the building of castles. In the case of the Ottoman palisaded castle at Barcs and in that of the royal palisaded castle at Bajcsavár (southern Transdanubia), attempts were made ‒ on the basis of archaeological observations and reconstructions of ground plans ‒ to determine the number of palisade stakes used for the walls at the time of building, as well as to establish the number of trees felled in order to make them. By way of environmental history researches, an answer was sought to the question of how much the construction of these palisaded castles impacted on the forests in their respective districts. In the case of Barcs Castle, investigations were conducted into whether forest clearance in its vicinity can be reconstructed on the basis of pollen samples. Other issues examined are how far forest clearance extended from the two fortifications, its intensity, and the approximate quantities of timber yielded by it.