Szadvar castle project and youth camp, Hungary

This summer Szadvar continued to reveal its hidden secrets buried more than 300 years ago.

 As reported earlier, the 2^nd phase of the Csonka tower’s conservation started in June with the excavation inside and around the building. The weather was not perfect as there were some rainy days in the area that time so the bastion could not completely cleaned from the ruins inside the walls.

 The wall which closed the building from the inner bailey (south side) was found and the different construction phases could be identified. Connecting walls were also found with the possible entrance but the stones of the door-step did not show (if there were at all). The adjacent wall on the eastern side was also cleaned and prepared for conservation. Due to the weather conditions there were remaining ruins which had to be removed from the tower on the next event. Now the tower is prepared for the conservation and reinforcement which should conclude this year.

 We opened the summer excavation camp on August 4^th, 2014. Up to 60 volunteers – including archeology students and children, arrived to the Szalamandra tourist house under the castle hill. These people were going to work on the excavations to help the archeologist Viktor Gal who had set out 7 different locations to dig.

 This year the excavations were focusing on the areas around the remaining walls which are still standing around the inner bailey. These walls are not protected by the ground so they lie under the wearing effects of the rains and winds. We hope to receive fund and more sources in the forthcoming years to enforce these walls so we had to prepare for that with the excavations.

 The most exciting location was probably the wall of the gate tower which once defended the entrance to the inner bailey. We have most probably found the remains of the vaulted gate and a brick floor in the adjacent building which may have been the kitchen. We were also digging in the Lakatos bastion where we found large beam holes in the walls showing once there was a strong wooden building there. We have dug out many ruins from the prison house but there were not much findings in those ruins. Still, we have found many ceramics, some nails and 2 coins during the week which made the people excited and enthusiastic to complete the hard work every day.

 Hopefully we will have the opportunity to report about an exhibition soon where we plan to show these findings to the local people and to everyone who travels in the small village of Szögliget.

 Now we are going to prepare for the Save the Castle days in October when we are going to need to cut the bushes from the walls again…

 Please see the attachments for more details.

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