Lakompak

Lakompak (German: Lackenbach, Croatian: Lakimpuh) is a market town in the Felsőpulya district of Burgenland, Austria. It is located 15 km northwest of Felsőpulya. The original name of Lakompak was Lók, which comes from the Hungarian word for horse. Lakompak is the German translation of the name: Look am bach.

In the charter of 1222, issued by King András II, it was mentioned that Pósa, the son of Botos of the Szák family, who went to Greece to meet the king returning from the Holy Land and was taken hostage there (1218), gave the lands of Veperd and Kis Lók in the county of Sopron, which the king exchanged with Miklós, the son of Bors. In this document the original name of the settlement appeared for the first time: “…quarum altera Wiepur, altera vero minor Louku nominatur…”. The donation was confirmed in 1229.

Since the 13th century, Lakompak has been part of the Lánzsér Castle, which is why the names of its owners are identical. The castle was built between 1548 and 1552 by Erasmus Teuffel on the site of an earlier water castle. Teuffel was captured in the unfortunate battle of Palást and beheaded in Constantinople. Lánzsér and Lakompak were bought from Teuffel’s brothers by Oláh Miklós, archbishop of Esztergom in 1553. You can read more about the history of Lánzsér Castle here:

https://www.hungarianottomanwars.com/kingdom-of-hungary/lanzser/

Beginning in 1554, the Archbishop had an outer castle built around the original castellum by the Italian master builder Geronimo Mariano. The outer castle was fortified with angular pointed bastions. In the northwest corner-bastion was placed the chapel that still exists today, with two stories of interior height and a large interior column in the center, on which an Italian mason named Baptista worked in 1556.

Between 1559 and 1560, the Archbishop’s two sisters, Ilona and Orsolya, and his son, Császar Miklós, lived in the castle. In 1561 the archbishop gave the estate to his nephew, Császár Miklós. His granddaughter Császár Orsolya became the wife of Dersffy Ferenc, who received the estate. The Dersffy family often stayed in Lakompak. After Dersffy’s death, the estate was inherited by his daughter Orsolya, who first married Mágochy Ferenc, and after his death, she married Esterházy Miklós.

In 1612 Esterházy Miklós, together with Dersffy Orsolya, acquired Lakompak as part of the Lánzsér estate. He rebuilt the castle in the late Renaissance style, which was completed in 1618. The castle was built in the fashion of the time with four corner bastions, a tower above the gate, a row of columns on the ground floor of the courtyard, and a Tuscan arcade with columns on the upper floor. A stone plaque with inscriptions and coats of arms above the gate of the entrance hall of the castle indicates that it was built by Esterházy Miklós and Dersffy Orsolya in 1618, at the same time as the entire castle was being remodeled.

The fights at Lakompak

The Transylvanian armies on their way to occupy Transdanubia were defeated at Lakompak Castle, held by Esterházy Miklós, by the much smaller army of General Heinrich Duval von Dampierre. Let us take a closer look at the events.

On September 14, 1620, King Ferdinand II warned Esterházy, who was staying in Lánzsér and Lakompak, to be careful because Prince Bethlen Gábor of Transylvania was sending troops against his estates. In mid-September, Bethlen sent 3,000 troops across the Danube between Győr and Komárom, who conquered Pápa, Veszprém, Sümeg, Kiskomárom, Pölöske, Egerszeg, Egervár and the whole of Zala, Vas, and Sopron counties.

His victorious soldiers now joined forces with Sennyey Gáspár, the commander of Sopron, and Huszár István to take revenge on Esterházy, Bethlen’s greatest enemy. On September 26, Esterházy wrote from Lakompak to the people of Sopron to surrender and return to the king. General Dampierre would conquer those who did not surrender in three days.

To take revenge on Esterházy for this demand, Sennyey Gáspár sent Huszár István with 3,000 horsemen and Petneházy István’s infantry against Lakompak. Lakompak was lightly fortified, so Esterházy bargained for time but waited for Dampierre’s troops. Huszár and Sennyey believed this and sent news of the victory to Bethlen, who besieged Hainburg.

On September 30, 1620, General Henry Duvall Dampierre, leading the imperial counterattack, set out with 700 mounted riflemen, 400 Cossacks, and 300 musketeers to relieve Lakompak. He had Catholic League troops and Spaniards and he wanted to relieve the besieged Esterházy. He was opposed by Huszár István with 3,000 horsemen and infantry from the Borderland castles. The Hungarian cavalry began the charge but was broken by the musketeers’ fire. Huszár’s second-in-command, Tarródy Mátyás, pursued the 400 Cossacks, but the fire of the musketeers and especially the charge of Don Pietro Aldobrandino’s cavalry caused Huszár to retreat and lose the battle. The imperial heavy cavalry scattered the outnumbered Hungarian army.  It is said that more than 800-1000 Hungarian soldiers remained on the battlefield, including Tarródy Mátyás.

Thurzó Imre especially mourned the death of the latter. Bethlen himself expressed his disapproval of the defeat of the battle, “which should not have happened, for I hear that Dampier’s army is a small army”. Tarródy was given an honorable burial by Esterházy, and his sarcophagus can still be seen in Lakompak, next to his castle.

The imperial cavalry did not undertake the tiring pursuit against the Hungarian light cavalry, who were able to pull themselves together quickly. Dampierre then marched under Pozsony (Presporok, Pressburg, Bratislava), which was defended by the Hajdú soldiers of Rákóczi György. In Pozsony, the Hajdú troops put up a tenacious defense and defeated the imperial army. Dampierre himself fell.

Bethlen Gábor left Hainburg with his troops and arrived in Lakompak at the beginning of October. He found the castle empty and occupied it with his soldiers. Esterházy retreated to the castle of Lánzsér, which he fortified well. In November, Dampierre’s successor, Count Collalto, marched through Sopron County towards Kőszeg, and Bethlen’s soldiers, fleeing from him, were forced to evacuate both Lakompak and Kabold. The retreating Transylvanians set fire to the castle.

Collato’s men also ravaged the Nádasdy estate called (Sopron)Keresztúr and Csepreg, slaughtering innocent citizens in Csepreg. Esterházy’s men were also in the army. It is recorded that several Esterházy villages were burned in revenge and the walls of Lánzsér were damaged by Bethlen’s troops.

The rise of Esterházy Miklós and his family was based on his actions against Bethlen Gábor. In 1626 he received the castle of Fraknó as a royal gift together with the title of Count. Lakompak was rebuilt by Esterházy and the paintings of the castle were made by Albertus Örtelmayer.

In keeping with the fashion of the time, Esterházy had a park built next to the Lakompak Palace. He wrote to his wife in 1624: “It is a pity that you cannot see this lovely garden, but if God preserves us… after a certain time we shall come here to live, for above it now seems to me a beautiful place”. The Renaissance palace garden consisted of two parts, the ornamental and vegetable garden (Hofgarten) and the deer park (Tendlgarten). A typical Renaissance feature is the King’s Hill in the Court Garden, surrounded by moats.

After the death of Esterházy Miklós, Lakompak passed to Esterházy István, the only son of Dersffy Orsolya. His daughter, Esterházy Orsolya, was married by papal license to the eldest surviving son of Esterházy Miklós, Esterházy Pál, the son of the Palatine’s second wife. Thus the property of the two wives of the late Palatine was united in one hand.

Esterházy Pál continued to build and decorate the castle. In 1657 he had a stable built in the outer ward, and in 1673 he commissioned stucco artists Rochus Bertoletti and Battista Verretini to work in the castle.

In 1659 in Lakompak a peasant was condemned to quartering by the lord’s court because he tried to become a Turk by escaping from Lánzsér with a Turkish prisoner and was therefore condemned as a “pribék” (renegade). “… who wanted to go to the Turkish country, but was caught at the border of Pinye, seized and brought back as a kind of renegade. … He was punished and, according to those who were in collusion with the pagan Turks and were trying to go to the Turkish lands and also trying to become a renegade, he was quartered and hung by his limbs on the gallows”.

According to Esterházy Pál’s record, in 1668 he received important guests in Lakompak: “Today Mr. Nádasdi with his wife, Mr. Draskovith Miklós, Mr. Pálfi János with his wife are coming here, tomorrow we will have lunch in Lánzsér”.

In 1693, the estates of Esterházy Pál were surveyed and Lakompak was valued at 100,000 florensis. Several depictions of the castle are known from this period (Greischer, Nypoort). The tripartite structure of the buildings is visible: the inner and outer castle and the fortified courtyard.

On March 6, 1704, the Kuruc (anti-Habsburg) Luka Benedek wrote a letter to Károlyi Sándor from Lakompak. In the letter, he informs the general about the fighting around Lánzsér and the possible conversion of Esterházy Antal to the Kuruc side.

According to the inventory of Lakompak Castle in 1722, one of the ceiling frescoes of the castle depicted the scene where Esterházy Pál was ceremonially receiving the insignia of the Order of the Golden Fleece. After Lánzsér Castle was burnt down in 1772, the manor was moved to Lakompak.

However, the castle was destroyed by fire in 1787. During the reconstruction that began in 1790-92, the outer and inner gate towers were demolished, the Baroque facade of the outer buildings was completed, and the outer fortifications and moats were removed. Recent Austrian research suggests that the rebuilding was probably carried out by the Viennese architect Johann Henrici.

In 1806, another fire destroyed the castle. At that time, the last remaining part of the old inner castle was demolished, leaving only the granary, which can still be seen today. It was also at this time that the outer facade was given its final Baroque shape.

Pasteiner Gyula in his work The Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in Writing and Pictures wrote about the castle that “it was destroyed by fire at the beginning of this century and has been in a deserted state ever since. The two floors of the two remaining wings have their colonnaded corridors opening onto the courtyard”.

Lakompak Castle is still owned by the Esterházy family and is managed by the Esterházy Private Foundation, together with Fraknó Castle and Eisenstadt Castle. The garden behind the castle is a nature reserve. A modern natural history museum is located in the former outbuildings of the castle. Now, the castle is a hunting hotel.

Source: Várlexikon http://www.varlexikon.hu

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