Komárom

Komárom occupies a strategic position where the Váh joins the Danube. Its castle guarded the meeting of the rivers and the routes toward Vienna and the Hungarian interior. King Matthias Corvinus used the medieval castle as a residence, but the advance of the Ottomans gave the site a new military importance.

Ferdinand I ordered a modern bastioned fortress begun in 1546. It withstood an Ottoman siege in 1594, protecting a crucial crossing even as nearby strongholds fell. After the capture of Nové Zámky by the Ottomans in 1663, the Habsburgs added a new fortress to strengthen the position. Komárom became the seat of the captaincy of Lower Hungary. Earthquakes in the eighteenth century damaged town and fortifications, yet the junction of the two rivers remained an important defensive site.