Medieval Šarengrad (Atya) and its lords

U prilogu se usporedno prati povijest srednjovjekovnoga trgovišta Šarengrada i smjena njegovih feudalnih gospodara od 13. do 16. stoljeća. Na temelju dostupnog izvornog gradiva slaže se fragmentarna slika o πarengradskoj utvrdi, vlastelinstvu, franjevačkom samostanu i crkvama. Nastoje se rasvijetliti okolnosti pod kojim su Šarengrad stjecale i gubile poznate i manje poznate plemićke i velikaπke obitelji Kukujevački-Šarengradski, Morović, Geréb od Vingárta, Perényi i naposljetku Török od Enyinga. Sudbina franjevačkog samostana rekonstruira se sve do pokušaja njegova oživljavanja pod osmanskom vlašću potkraj 16. stoljeća.Šarengrad, whose medieval name was Atya (a Hungarian word meaning ‘father’), is first mentioned in 1275 as an estate owned by Eynardus, son of a French-born royal officer Smaragdus. It was inherited by a stem of Eynardus’ descendants called de Kwke (today it would be ‘of (today it would be ‘of Kukujevci’). In 1332-5, the parish church of St. Peter in Šarengrad, included in the jurisdiction of the archdeacon of Marchia in the bishopric of Pécs, paid a modest sum of 11 grossi for the for the extraordinary papal tithe. Because of disloyalty to the king Sigismund of Luxemburg, John of Kukujevci, called also “of Šarengrad”, lost his part of the Šarengrad estate, which the king handed over in 1398 to John of Morović [Hung. Marót], ban of Mačva († around 1434). Morović acquired the rest of the estate in 1404, again through a royal intervention, and in 1409, through an exchange of lands. In 1414, “the former castellans of Šarengrad” are mentioned; contrary to the common view, it seems that the castle was already built by the nobles of Kukujevci and not by ban Morović only. Morović built in Šarengrad a convent and a church of the Holy Spirit for the Franciscans of the Bosnian vicariate, for which he received several papal permissions (in 1405, 1411 and 1420). The completion of that project was certainly delayed by the fact that, after a defeat in Bosnia in 1415, Morović spent four years in the Ottoman captivity. The convent began its life after 1420 and the pope Eugenius IV (1431-1447) was the first to grant indulgences to the attenders of its church. In the summer and autumn of 1456, some Italian fellow friars of the later canonized John Capistran - who died on 23 October 1456 in the Franciscan convent in nearby Ilok - were recovering from illnesses in the convent of ©arengrad. The early collections of Capistran’s posthumous miracles, written in Ilok until 1461, mention twelve miracle beneficiaries from Šarengrad, mostly children; among them, a son of the court master of Louis of Morović. From the beginning of the 15th century, Šarengrad is regularly described as market-town ( oppidum), and we know of four students originating from it who studied in Cracow and Vienna. The last member of the influential family of MoroviÊ and another ban of Mačva, Mathew († 1476), made in 1470 his wife Margaret Szilágyi - a cousin of king Matthias Corvinus - the owner of the Šarengrad estate. In 1481, the estate was transferred to her magnate cousins, brothers Geréb of Vingárt. In the summer of 1490, the convent in Šarengrad was damaged in the attack which the partisans of Maximilian of Habsburg made on the estates of the Geréb family, who was a supporter of king Wladislas II. Nevertheless, the convent subsequently played an even more prominent role, the chapters of the Hungarian observant vicariate being held in it in 1495, 1499 and 1511. Especially important is the Šarengrad chapter of 1499, when the prescriptions and decrees concerning the observant Franciscans in Hungary were put together and confirmed. In 1500, the head of the Franciscan custodia of Ilok, Stephen of Szaporca, died and of Ilok, Stephen of Szaporca, died and was buried in the convent in Šarengrad. Ladislas Geréb, archbishop of Kalocsa and previously bishop of Transylvania, was also buried here. His testament, two notes on his death as well as the text of his epitaph are preserved, but data on the year of his death are discordant; the correct date, 26 July 1502, has been confirmed through a detailed comparative examination. According to the epitaph, next to Ladislas his two brothers, count palatine Peter (†1503) and the ban of Croatia Matthias (†1493), were also buried; but this may not be true in the case of Peter; none of the tombs has been found so far. After the Gerébs passed away without offspring, Margaret Szilágyi appeared again as the owner of Šarengrad in 1504, only to leave the estate to the children of her relative Apollonia of Rozgony and her husband Benedict of Csák. They donated it, as early as 1505, to the count palatine Emeric of Perény († 1519), probably on the occasion of his marriage to Dorothy of Kanizsa, the widow of Peter Geréb. Soon afterwards Perényi himself donated the castle and the estate to the ban of Belgrade, Emeric Török of Enying, but the latter had subsequently to pay for it in cash after Dorothy protested against the donation. The last medieval lord of Šarengrad was Emeric’s son Valentine, also ban of Belgrade and later captain of Severin (Hung. Szörény), a warrior who finished his days in the Ottoman captivity. Around 1510, the convent in Šarengrad is mentioned as a part of the custodia of Ilok (also of Ilok (also called “of blessed John Capistran”) along with seven other convents around the lower Danube. In the repeated registration of Capistran’s miracles around 1520, three more cases from Šarengrad are noted down; one of them describes a lay brother from the Šarengrad convent, named Francis of Patak, who was healed from deafness - a miracle testified to by the convent’s guardian, Benedict of Szentmárton, and three other friars. The Turks captured Šarengrad in August 1526, on their inflexible way to Mohács and Buda. The convent was abandoned, just like the most of the custodia of Ilok. In the last quarter of the 16th century, it was briefly revived of Ilok. In the last quarter of the 16th century, it was briefly revived by the friars of the province of Bosnia “Argentina” (or “of Srebrenica”). The convent’s activity in 1592-3 was documented by the contemporary bishop of Bosnia, Franjo Baličević. However, in 1596 the friars were chased away because of the colaboration with the Christians during the “fourteen-year” Habsburg-Turkish war. The putting to death and impalement of the guardian became a subject of later historical as well as legendary memory