Bidspirit auction | Strigonium / Gran. Colónia, c.

Strigonium / Gran. Colónia, c. 1596. - [ESZTERGOM (GRAN)]. Strigonium, Gran. Georg BRAUN; Frans HOGENBERG (eds.), after a drawing by Georg (Joris) HOEFNAGEL. [Cologne, Georg Braun & Frans Hogenberg, c. 1596]. Engraving; 425 × 535 mm (sheet). Sheet with two panoramic views of the Hungarian city of Esztergom (Gran), an important episcopal seat on the Danube. In the upper half, the Danube valley appears with the walled city at centre, surrounded by cultivated fields and small settlements; at right, in a dominant position, the great castle and citadel on a steep rock, with dedicatory inscription to Cardinal Archbishop Thomas Bakócz and a numbered legend identifying the main buildings and strategic points. In the foreground, figures of travellers on foot and horseback. In the lower half, a new view of Esztergom from the opposite bank of the river: in the foreground a plain with armed horsemen and wooden palisades; further back, the lower town stretches along the Danube, while the fortified acropolis rises on an isolated crag, dominating the entire river landscape. Small lettered cartouches identify neighbourhoods, monasteries and surrounding hills. On verso, Latin text under the heading STRIGONIUM, GRAN. , describing the city’s history, its role as religious centre of the Kingdom of Hungary and the military events linked to the campaigns against the Turks; it concludes with reference to the reconstruction and fortification promoted by the Habsburgs. The sheet belongs to one of the central volumes of the urban atlas Civitates orbis terrarum by Georg Braun and Frans Hogenberg, the most important collection of city views of early modern Europe.