Dunaföldvár

Dunaföldvár is a town in Tolna County, Hungary, 90 km south of Budapest. It has always been an important crossing place of the Danube river.

It was first mentioned in 1199 which said that King Béla II the Blind had established a monastery there in 1131. The rich monastery’s importance had been declining until the 15th century, though. It was the town where Sultan Suleiman the Great received the delegation of the Jewish inhabitants of Buda in 1526 who offered him the keys of the city. They may have heard that the Jews of Pécs city in southern Hungary were slaughtered by the conquerors so their fear was quite reasonable. The Turks called Dunaföldvár Jur Hisszarit.

Evlija Cselebi wrote in 1663 that the castle was reinforced from the carved stones of the Christian monastery. After the “liberation” of Hungary, Serbian and German settlers arrived in the city.

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