The Archaeology of the 18th Century in Visegrád

The 18th century is a little-known and under-researched period of historic Visegrád. From the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries, the townscape, topography and ethnic composition of the village, which later became a market town, established in the area of the destroyed medieval royal seat and residence underwent dramatic changes. At the same time, in the same way as in earlier centuries, the newly developing economy and people’s everyday life were strongly impacted by the natural environment. The image of Visegrád and construction work in the Baroque period were fundamentally defined by the proximity of the Danube and the woodlands in the vicinity, as well as the extensive field of ruins in the area. New buildings were erected on the still extant medieval ruins, incorporating considerable sections of the former network of roads, land layout and public utilities, which in several respects constitute a direct antecedent to present-day Visegrád. This is how the settlement structure characteristic up to the second half of the 20th century, and in some cases even up to our days, evolved with one main street, long, narrow plots of land and at some points with a clustered settlement structure. We have increasing amounts of information about this period from written (historic-topographic) sources, as well as thanks to the excavations that go beyond the traditional landmark divide of the year 1711.