Szolnok

Szolnok stands at the confluence of the Tisza and Zagyva on the Hungarian plain. River traffic and routes crossing the plain made it a centre for the movement of salt and timber as well as a place of military importance. In 1550–51, as Ottoman forces advanced into Hungary, Ferdinand I ordered the defences of Szolnok strengthened. The Ottomans captured the fortress and town in 1552. Szolnok became the seat of a sanjak in the province of Buda, and in 1596 was assigned to the newly established province of Eger. Its palisaded fortress housed a mosque noted by the traveller Evliya Çelebi in 1665. Archaeological discoveries also reveal a substantial Ottoman building in the fortress, interpreted as the residence of a sanjak governor. Hungarian forces recaptured Szolnok in 1685. The river crossing continued to shape the town's life after Ottoman rule, connecting the plain with routes toward other parts of Hungary.