Kolozsvár korai történetének buktatói
The Pitfalls of the Early History of Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca, Romania)

Summary/Abstract: During the past few decades the scholarly research of the medieval urban development in the Hungarian Kingdom underwent significant progress. As a consequence it was quite necessary to bring the outdated interpretation of the medieval history of Kolozsvár to a new stage, which is the main purpose of the present paper. The town emerged as the main suburbia of the Kolozs castle, the centre of the homonym county. This is the reason why in order to understand the beginnings of the town it is necessary to clarify the history of the castle. It was an earthtimber fortification erected as early as the 11th century. Being the center of the county it housed the officials that administered the county and the large county domains of the Hungarian kings. It seems that important changes took place in the second half of the 11th century when the interior of the castle started to be used as burial place, and the existence of the interior dwellings gradually ceased. This is the period when presumably King Béla I, or Ladislas I founded a Benedictine monastery, placed in the interior of the castle. Since the existence of the county officials is still documented an important question emerges: in which way both of the institutions (that is the monastery and the officials) shared the castle at the same time? I consider that at the beginning, mainly in the 12th century, the territory of the castle was divided among them (a similar situation is supposed to be at Somogyvár). However, from the end of the 12th century the castle no more was used as the centre of the county, and its whole territory was taken over by the monks. The castle was still maintained for a while, and was finally destroyed during the Tartar invasion in 1241. According to some earlier opinions, when the castle of Kolozs was destroyed in 1241, the centre of the county was moved to the castle of Léta (Liteni, Romania). In this case one has to consider that in the second half of the 13th century the administration and the organization of the counties of Hungary underwent serious changes, and there were no more county centers from where these territories might have been administered. So the castle of Léta never was the centre of Kolozs County, and anyway hardly could have been because it was situated in the neighbour Torda County. Around Kolozs castle several suburbia emerged, the most important of them being Kolozsvár, that took over the name of the castle. Its early existence is documented only by archaeological finds, especially by a graveyard situated on the main square of the present day town (Főtér, Piaţa Victoriei), which can be dated mainly in the 12th century. It was inhabited by the so called castrenses, a population subjected to the castle. Their number greatly decreased during the Mongol invasion, and in order to stimulate its resettlement, Prince Stephen, the younger King of Hungary (1257- 1270) granted to the newly settled colonists (hospes) some privileges. Several years later, the same king granted the earlier inhabitants of Kolozsvár to the bishop of Transylvania, only the hospes being maintained in royal property. In the second half of the 13th century these bishops practiced quite an aggressive policy to extend their properties in the northern counties of Transylvania. The county of Kolozs was one of their favorite territories in order to push in to the background the Benedictine Monastery. By acquiring Kolozsvár and Szászfenes, the Episcopal territories got very close to the monastery. At the beginning the social structure of the Episcopal citizens of Kolozsvár was pretty diversified. In general they were called inquillinus, and the new ones who settled there hospes. In the first half of the 14th century both of these categories merged into a new social category: the tenant peasants (iobagio). Until the mid 14th century they were subjected to the bishop of Transylvania, when they gradually emancipated and became citizens of the free town of Kolozsvár. The basis of the free town was put by the above mentioned prince Stephen when he granted privileges to the royal hospes who settled there. These privileges were reinforced and widened by King Carol I in 1316, which is the first explicit town privilege of Kolozsvár. From now on the settlement of the royal hospes started to take shape similar to other important towns of Hungary from both legal and architectural point of view. This is the moment when the first fortification of the town was erected. From the 15th century on it was named Óvár (the Old Castle) because at that time a new fortification was built. After 1316 the citizens started to extend their ownership and authority over the whole territory of the town, including its boundaries, a process finished in the second half of the 14th century. During this process the bishop of Transylvania lost its last tenant peasants, some of them obtaining the citizenship of the town. One of the major pending questions concerning the early history of Kolozsvár refers to its early parish church. The church is mentioned for the first time in an indulgency letter issued in 1349. In general this moment was considered as a starting point for the construction of the actual parish church. The earliest part of it was built indeed in the second half of the 14th century. However the indulgency letter mentions clearly that only those may get indulgence who shares the mass hold in the church and in its filial chapel. In consequence it’s quite clear that the indulgency letter was not issued for the present day parish church, but for its antecedent. There is no unanimous opinion regarding its location: it could have been built on the spot of the actual church, or on the square of the so called Óvár. The beginning of the 15th century marked a new era in the history of the town. A new burgess emerged and took over the lead of the town, establishing new tendencies in its evolution.

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