Körmend

Körmend stands on the Rába in western Hungary, where its castle guarded a river crossing and the estates beyond on the approaches to Austria. The fortified residence was recorded in the fifteenth century. In 1604 it passed to the Batthyány family, whose lands and influence made Körmend an important centre of the western frontier.

In 1664 Grand Vizier Köprülü Ahmed tried to cross the Rába here during the Ottoman campaign against the Habsburgs, bringing fighting to the castle and town. The stronghold was damaged again during Francis II Rákóczi's uprising and rebuilt in the following decade. In the 1730s Count Lajos Batthyány transformed it into a Baroque palace, expressing the family's position as the town became an administrative centre for its estates.