| Description |
495 p. ; 30 cm. |
| Series |
CEU Medieval Studies Department PhD theses ; 2013/1
|
|
CEU Doctoral School of History
|
| Subject |
Roads -- Hungary
|
|
Árpád, House of
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Hungary -- History -- 896-1301
|
| Language |
English |
| Summary |
The dissertation deals with the road systems of Western Transdanubia (Counties Moson, Sopron, Zala, and especially County Vas) between the eleventh and mid-fourteenth centuries. The various types of roads formed an intricate, both hierarchically and chronologically multi-layered system that was in constant change. The investigated period provides an overview of the chronological and topographical evolution of the sequences of roads from the foundation of the Hungarian State, through the formation of the Árpád Period settlement system, the rise of internal and foreign commercial activities, as well as a one-and-a-half-century-long period of political, economic, military, and social transformations followed by a time of consolidation. Western Transdanubia involving the marchland (Hu. gyepű) that separated the Hungarian Kingdom and the Holy Roman Empire represents an ideal territory to observe the processes above and investigate their effect on the contemporary road system. In lack of navigable waterways it was exclusively land roads that functioned as routes of travel and transport in the investigated territory. These routes played a fundamental role in medieval territorial organisation in various aspects. The settlement system and the road network of any region were equally important, mutually interrelated elements in the landscape that presupposed each other, and the transformation of one necessarily brought about changes in the other. Roads enabled communication between castles and therefore they served as the backbone of the counties’ territorial organization and the military defence system. Economy and trade also required roads as goods (agricultural produce, handicraft products, timber, stone, minerals, and so on) had to be transported from their places of production to those of distribution and consumption. Finally, the parish system would have again been unimaginable without roads connecting parish churches with settlements belonging to them. |
| Note |
Degree: PhD |
| File Type |
PDF file (14827k) |
| Local note |
ETD |
| Access |
Unrestricted |
| System Det |
System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader; PostScript compatible printer |
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