Győr

Győr stands at the meeting of the Rába and the Danube's Moson branch, on the route between Buda and Vienna. Its bishopric, castle and markets made it a leading town of western Hungary. In the sixteenth century its position on the Habsburg frontier against the Ottomans became especially important, and the old castle was strengthened with bastions.

In 1594 an Ottoman army captured Győr, alarming the defenders of the road to Vienna. Four years later a mixed force led by Miklós Pálffy and Adolf von Schwarzenberg approached at night and surprised the Ottoman garrison within the fortress. Its recovery in 1598 was celebrated throughout Europe. The fortress remained a centre of the frontier command while the wars continued elsewhere in Hungary. Its commanders oversaw the smaller royal garrisons in the district, part of a defensive system supplied and directed by the court in Vienna.

In the eighteenth century Győr grew as a commercial and ecclesiastical town, with churches and houses rebuilt in the Baroque style. The bishopric and its clergy continued to shape the life of the town alongside merchants and craftsmen. Maria Theresa granted it the status of a free royal town in 1743. Its rivers continued to connect the town with the Danube and with the agricultural districts of western Hungary.