For a couple of weeks now, I've been reading the historical Hungarian epic Eclipse of the Crescent Moon by Géza Gárdonyi, which is "based on the real events of..." the siege of Eger (the town, not Egér the mouse) in 1552. I was especially interested in this story because it portrays a Hungarian victory. Amanda and I are getting very well versed in Hungarian tragedies, slaughters, repressions and rebellions, but this promised to be a rip-roaring tale of Hungarian triumph (and it was if you ignore the fact that many of the major heroes were later killed in a variety of tragedies, slaughters, repressions and/or rebellions).
The book tells, and the castle shows, the story of Dobó István, Gergely Bornemissza and almost 2000 other brave Hungarians who stood against the Ottoman army which counted in at around the 80,000 armed soldiers and 70,000 in support (150,000 combined). Dobó stood against these massive odds with only 6 large cannons and 12 smaller cannons, against the Ottoman's 16 awfully large cannons and 150 smaller cannons.
The drive to Eger was around 2 hours from Mariápócs, which was quickly passed by doing some Hungarian language practice, and chatting about this and other books that we are reading at the moment. We arrived in Eger at around 1pm, and after finding a park went to have lunch at a local restaurant (which was rather nice). The main square is now called Dobó square and has a large rather impressive statue of him and his comrades standing in the middle. Dobó is quite a figure of folk legend in these parts, and along with Eger itself, has become the national figure of Hungarian defence. Which is ironic considering how he died.
After lunch, we walked our way up to the castle, which is pretty impressive with all it's thick walls and large cannons. It was strange to stand up on the castle walls, and imagine 150 thousand people surrounding you, swearing at you, throwing things at you, enticing you with fantastic rewards to open the gates, cursing you with the horrendous consequences of your inevitable defeat. 
It's hard, but impressive to think of the 150 odd cannons blasting all day for 39 days, their horrid noise echoing off the nearby hillside. Then every night you would try to repair the damage done during the day, before getting blasted once more. At the end of the 39th day, the survivors counted the cannon balls (excluding those that got lodged on the walls) and almost 12,000 cannon balls landed inside the castle walls. That is over 300 cannonballs a day would crash into your living area. Amanda and I captured the imagery pretty well by giving our impersonation of these heroic soldiers (I was a Turk, she was a Hungarian).
Over the 39 days, the Hungarians repelled the Turks with a combination of Gergley's ingeniously vicious explosives (i.e. bombs inside bombs: BOOM! ... ... ... "Okay, I think it's fine to charge ag... BOOM!, or his bombs and guns attached to a milling wheel then sent rolling down towards the enemy BOOM, BANG, KAPOW! KAPOW!), Dobó's strong leadership, the strength of the Hungarian will and the fact that winter was coming and the Ottoman soldiers had already been on the march for almost eight months prior. By the time the Ottoman army withdrew they had lost over a third of their ranks.
This is where the book cheerfully ended.
We know of course, that the turks returned not too soon afterwards, took Eger quite easily and hanged Gergely from a post. Dobó was long since gone at this point having been accused of treason and died in captivity in modern day Bratislavia. The Hungarian tradition is thus maintained.
The Turks held Eger for the next 91 or so years and built this rather impressive minaret not to far from the castle walls. It's over 40 meters tall with ninety seven steps to the lookout. So for two hundred forents (about $1 AUD), I climbed all the way to the top and held on for dear life. I'm not usually afraid of heights but the combination of the tight spiral staircase that was just a bit tighter than my shoulder width, and the rusty lookout at the top overlooking the town really unnerved me. Still, it was a pretty awesome thing.
- Daniel.
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