Koszeg, Hungary

View to old town, Kőszeg

The Jurisich Square

This square was the spot of the former markets where carts loaded with goods came and went both weekdays and holidays. Also, this was the place of the town’s political and social life. Residents were called here to meetings, the borough magistrate delivered sentences here. People who broke the law were closed into stocks here and here stood the pillory, the humiliation device of the Middle Ages. On the place torture you find now the Blessed Virgin Mary statue erected in 1739. Lorenz Eisenköbel, a stone-carver from Sopron, made it. The costs were covered by the punishment imposed on Lutheran civics who decried Mary. Eisenköbel also made the town well behind the Mary statue. In 1766 a stone house was built over the well, the walled up arches of which were opened during the reconstruction of the well. if you want to get to know the square you just have to take a seat on the benches around the Mary statue and your glance is able to take in this small closed square.

The 5-acre inner Town was protected by the town-wall since the 15th century inside which there were 73 houses. in the current Inner Town there are still 73 houses, although during the centuries due to the fire the town was repeatedly burned down. As far as we know, Kőszeg was ravaged by fire 14 times during the 17th and 18th centuries. This explains the fact that only 102 historically protected buildings are registered and only 10 out of them were built earlier than in the 18th century, although the city and the castle were established in the 13th century. The reason for the frequent fires was that the houses of the inner town, as anywhere in Europe, were built of wood and mud wall.

St. Imre Church

St. Imre church is the result of the 17th century fight between the different nationalities. After 1558, the citizens of Kőszeg were divided into smaller groups depending upon their religions and nationalities. This fact influenced the life of the local government and also, the local church. The German Lutherans, after having played an important role in the City’s life, felt themselves strong enough to expel the Hungarian Protestants from St. James Church, upon the request of whom, the town started to build a new church in 1615. Walent Marx, a master builder from Kirschlag started to build the new church, but finally it was completed by another master build called Wolf Zehentmayer in 1640. He was inclined to build a similar church for the Hungarians to the former one. He built the tower higher during one of the renovations. There is no other explanation that the church, built during the time of baroque and renaissance in the beginning of the 17th century, bears gothic signs. The church, originally built for the Protestants, as taken away by Tamás Pálffy and György Széchenyi in 1673 and was given to the Catholics and served as the parish church of the city until the end of the 19th century.
(Source:www.koszeg.hu)