| Book your hotel |
Visegrád
Book Your Hotel Now
Visegrád is a small castle town in Pest County, Hungary.
Situated north of Budapest on the right bank of the Danube in the Danube Bend, Visegrád has a population 1,654 as of 2001. Visegrád is famous for the remains of the Early Renaissance summer palace of King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary and the medieval citadel.
Location of Visegrád
Etymology
The name Visegrád (Vyšehrad) is of Slavic origin meaning "the upper castle" or "the upper settlement/town/fortification". In modern Slovak and Czech the spelling is Vyšehrad. There is a town with a similar name in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Višegrad, as well as a small settlement in Texas under the Czech spelling, near Hallettsville. An archaic German name for Visegrád is Plintenburg.
History
Visegrád was first mentioned in 1009 as a county town and the chief town of an archdeaconry. After the destructive Mongol invasion of Europe in 1242, the town was rebuilt in a slightly different location to the south. King Charles I of Hungary made Visegrád, his hometown, the royal seat of Hungary in 1325.
In 1335, Charles hosted at Visegrád a two-month congress with the Bohemian king, John of Luxembourg, and the Polish king, Casimir III. It was crucial in creating a peace between the three kingdoms and securing an alliance between Poland and Hungary against Habsburg Austria. Another congress followed in 1338.
Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Hungary, moved the royal seat to Buda between 1405-1408. King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary used Visegrád as a country residence.
Visegrád lost importance after the partition of the Kingdom of Hungary following the Battle of Mohács in 1526.
In 1991, the leading politicians of Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Poland met here to form a periodical forum between these countries, the Visegrád group, with an intentional allusion to the meeting centuries earlier in 1335.
Visegrád was granted town privileges in 2000.
