In 1200 Kolozsvár is a royal county castle with a village beside it, not a town: the earth-and-timber castle of the counts of Kolozs (the later Óvár) by the Szamos, on the ground of Roman Napoca, with its castle folk and a market for the county.
Across the river stands the Benedictine abbey of Kolozsmonostor, a royal foundation (Church map record). The Saxon settlers, the bishop's lordship (1275) and the city charter (1316) are all later.
Who holds it
- Name
- King Emeric, through the count of Kolozs (not named for 1200)
- Title
- Lord of Kolozsvár
- Since
- Royal castle since the 11th century
- Confidence
- medium
en.wikipedia (History of Cluj-Napoca): seat of the castle county of Kolozs from Stephen I; a castle and a village built north-west of Roman Napoca no later than the late 12th century; the abbey of Kolozsmonostor founded by Ladislaus I; the village granted to the bishop in 1275; city status in 1316. Saxon settlers came later in the 13th century.
Lord in 1200
The count of Kolozs for the king.
How things stand that morning
A royal castle and village of the count of Kolozs; the tierra shows only the castle and its near fields.
Charter
None (city charter 1316).
Council
None; the count and his castle officers.
Communities
Hungarian castle folk; no recorded foreign merchants for 1200.
Fairs and markets
None recorded for 1200.
Militia
The castle warriors of Kolozs county.
Walls and castle
The county castle (earth and timber); no town wall.
Trade and crafts
Market of the county on the road from the Meszes and Királyhágó gates to Torda and the Maros; salt from Kolozsakna nearby.
Places of note
- Kolozsmonostor abbey: Benedictine royal abbey (Church map record)
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Mostly archaeology; counts of Kolozs in charters of 1177, 1183 and 1201.
Primary sources for Transylvania (voivode Legforus)
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- The Deeds of the Hungarians, by the Anonymous Notary of King Béla, Anonymus (P. magister) (about 1200 to 1210, the date disputed). Not a record of events but a picture of the kingdom's nobility and geography as a courtier of about 1200 wished to see it: the clans and their lands, the castles and counties, the Vlachs, Cumans and other peoples of the Carpathian basin, all projected back onto the conquest. Read online
- Hungarian royal charters: Fejér's Codex diplomaticus and Szentpétery's critical calendar of the Árpád kings (documents of the 11th to 13th centuries; Fejér published 1829 to 1844, Szentpétery vol. 1 in 1923). The documentary base for Hungary in 1200: King Emeric's grants to Pannonhalma, the bishops, the Templars and Hospitallers, Duke Andrew's acts in Croatia and Dalmatia, and the papal letters of 1200 to Emeric about his brother's rebellion and about heresy in Bosnia. Read online
Sources and studies
- History of Cluj-Napoca, en.wikipedia
- L. Makkai, Royal Counties in Transylvania, in History of Transylvania I (ed. B. Köpeczi, English ed. 2001)
- Kolozs vármegye, hu.wikipedia
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.