Find the Báthory Crest on the entrance of the castle. Geobox with lots of small items will be on the left.
The Báthory Castle is a historic fort in Transilvania, in the modern-day city of Șimleu-Silvaniei, Szilágysomlyó in hungarian.
Since the 1590s, the castle was the main residence of the Hungarian Báthory family during the era of the Principality of Transylvania.
The family divided into two major branches, which descended from the sons and grandsons of Briccius:
The elder branch of the family, the Báthory of Somlyó were descended from John, Count of Szatmár, the first-born son of Briccius, through his eldest son Ladislaus (died 1373). Ladislaus, Count of Szabolcs, married Anna Meggyesi and received Somlyó as dowry. Ladislaus' younger brother George II is the ancestor of the Simolin family, later called Báthory of Simolin. A further division occurred under the great-grandsons of Ladislaus (latter half of the 15th century): John and Stephen dropped the name Báthory and founded the Szaniszlófi family, while Nikolaus continued the Somlyó branch.
Legend and coats of arms
A legendary account, placing the Báthorys' origin in the year 900 (preceding the advent of the Gutkeled clan), relates how a god-fearing warrior called Vitus (a namesake of a member of the first generation of the Gutkeled clan) set out to fight a dragon, which lurked in the swamps next to the castle of Ecsed (actually built only in the 14th century) and harassed the countryside. Vitus killed it with three thrusts of his lance and as a reward received the castle. The grateful people honoured him with the names Báthory, meaning "good hero", and animus magnanimus. In Hungarian the word bátor means "brave".
A simplified version of the Báthory coat of arms, based on those of Stephen Báthory, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania (reigned 1576-1586)
The Báthory coat of arms, granted in 1325 to the sons of Briccius, was styled in reference to this legend: three horizontally placed teeth surrounded by a dragon biting its own tail, the surrounding dragon being the emblem of the Order of the Dragon.
In 1576, Stephanus Báthory received the crown of Poland in St. Margaret's Church, Mediaș, hence our cache here.