On the Edge of a Study: the Castles in Rika Forest and the Royal Domain of  Odorheiu Secuiesc Cover Image

Egy disszertáció margójára: A Rika-erdei várak és az udvarhelyi királyi magánuradalom
On the Edge of a Study: the Castles in Rika Forest and the Royal Domain of Odorheiu Secuiesc

Author(s): András Sófalvi
Subject(s): Archaeology
Published by: Erdélyi Múzeum-Egyesület
Keywords: Rika forest; Arpadian Age; tower-castle; ridge-road; royal domain; forest county

Summary/Abstract: On the shed of Perşani Mountain, in the Rika Forest (that is a border between Harghita and Covasna county, today Romania) there were two castles built in the Arpadian Age. Kustaly castle was a multi-storied rectangle tower surrounded with trench and probably with a palisade. 5,5 km away, on the top of Boldi Mountain lay the ruins of two similar towers, 450 m apart from each other, being also fortified by trenches and banks. Near the castles, on the shed of the mountain, medieval ridge-roads were identified. There are no written sources concerning the castles, however the archaeological researches date their building in the 12th century, and their destruction in the 14th century. We do not know of any such early analogies in the region, as for Transylvania only the castles from Cetatea de Baltă and Orăştie, as well as the castle from Iliada (Caraş-Severin county) can be mentioned. This type of castle, known as tower-castle, was spread mostly on the northern parts of the Hungarian Kingdom and on royal domains (e.g. Zvolen and Kolačno, both in Slovakia). In our assumption the castles in the Rika Forest were royal castles, built on the domain of the Arpadian kings. The area had its centre in Odorheiu Secuiesc, and the named buildings had a role in hunting and in forest administration, respectively in the control of the roads leading from Burzenland into the centre of Transylvania.

  • Issue Year: 2013
  • Issue No: I
  • Page Range: 165-174
  • Page Count: 10
  • Language: Hungarian