The information of Priskos on the region was used then by several later authors, including Constanine Porphyrogenitus. There must have been other Byzantine travelers in the region, but no detailed account is known.
In the central Middle Ages, the travelers across Hungary and its neighbors on the Balkans came to the region mostly on their way to the Holy Land, as pilgrims or crusaders. After the foundation of the kingdom, King (St.) Stephen I, opened the pilgrimage route in 1018, with a major station at Alba Regia, one of the royal residences. Bishop (St.) Gerard, a Venetian, came to the country on his way to Jerusalem, but was, as is well known, detained by the king and made bishop of a newly conquered area in the southeast of the kingdom. It is not quite clear from the Vita of the saint, how he ended up in Pecs/Quinqueecclesiis, having been originally sailing down the Adriatic Sea, but landing in Zadar, whence (apparently on the counsel of an abbot) he travelled to the Danube, planning to sail down the river. While he did not write a travelogue, the legend records his travels in Hungary and his having witnessed a servant girl singing “the symphony of the Magyars,” an oft-quoted evidence for the people’s musical history.2
In 1054, St Lietbert of Cambrai and (according to tradition) three thousand pilgrims crossed Hungary and the Balkans. His monk Rudolf recorded that they were suspected by the king of “the Huns” and ordered to appear before him. But he, seeing the holy bishop and his energy travelling so far, not only allowed them to cross, but also gave them guides “as they did no know the road earlier ”(Thus, the pilgrimage route seems to have been not yet widely popular.) The pilgrims were called the “Host of God.” Later, they encountered some wild Barbarians in Bulgaria, riding half naked on wild horses “with ribbons on their head.” The bishop was prepared to suffer martyrdom at their hands, but they were moved by the saint’s appearance and so they reached Greek land without trouble.3
Hundred years later, Otto of Freising described Hungary, which he crossed with the German Crusaders of Emperor Conrad in 1147.4 He is the first Western traveler, who observed the country and its government in some detail. Otto records that the Hungarians have few stone or even wooden buildings and live during the summer in tents. The king’s power is supreme and he compares it with the conditions in the Empire, where the great men of the realm have considerable might. In Hungary, so he observed, the lords come to the king, have to bring their own chairs with them (!?) into the council – which they hold for every important decision – but have to obey the ruler unconditionally. The king is also the supreme judge and (so Otto) it is not that the peers have a say in court. Very important is his observation about the armed forces: there are many foreigners trained in knightly warfare, but the Magyars have crude weapons and are learning refined fighting from the guests. (This fits well with what we know about the advena clans listed in the chronicles.)5 Otto knew about the system of counties – his number 70 of them is a unique information about the age – and the office of the comites.
Several other Crusaders’ chronicles mention briefly their trip across the Carpathian Basin, but none of them goes into such details as Otto. Odo of Deuil (1117) and others, usually note only the difficulties of the terrain and the rivers. Odo – who crossed Hungary in 15 days – writes that except the Danube, the country and its rivers are marshy and flood lands. Only the banks of the Drava are steep and thus less flooded, but difficult to cross. Moreover, “the Danube carries the treasures of many lands to Esztergom.” He also added that “the country produces so much good food that it is said the Julius Caesar’s commissioners were in it.”6 The priest Ansbert (1189) also recorded that King Bela Ill’s residence was in Esztergom, that the king and his royal guests (Fredrick Barbarossa and his lords) went for a hunt on the Great Island (Csepel Island) and that they visited Old Buda. He also complained that they were cheated in the exchange of their Cologne marks – giving valuable information on twelfth-century coinage in Hungary. Ansbert added that they had a peaceful crossing of Hungary and were not, as elsewhere, attacked by dangerous insects or snakes.' These brief references and a few similar ones are all helpful in the reconstruction of royal itineraries and economic or social conditions of the age.8
The number of foreigners – mainly Germans – visiting the kingdom increased in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, especially under the reign of King and Emperor Sigismund, but wrote little about the country. Yet the most interesting and detailed travelogue was written in 1433 by the Burgundian diplomat and spy, Bertrandon de la Brocquiere, who crossed Hungary on his way back from the Holy Band. The report, presented to Philippe the Good, was aimed at encouraging a new crusade, after the defeat of the European army at Nicopolis. In the part about the Balkans, the author discussed the manners and especially the military arrangements of the Turks (Ottomans) and then his trip from Belgrade through Szeged, Pest and Buda to Austria. His description of the cities he passed through and their economy is a unique source for the early fifteenth-century conditions.9
The first city he visited was Szeged:
Zegedin is a large country town of a single street that seems about a league in length. It is in a fertile country with abounds in all sorts of provision. Many cranes and bustards are taken here, and I saw the market place full of them, but they dress and eat them in a filthy manner. The Theis [Tisza – JMB] abounds in fish and I have no where seen a river that produces such large ones. Many wild horses are brought tither for sale, and their manner of conquering and taming them is curious, [alas, no details! – JMB]. I have been told that should any one want three or four thousand; they could be procured within the town; and they are so cheap that a very good road horse may be brought for ten hungarian florins. […] The cordelier friars [Franciscans – JMB] have a handsome church in this town, where I heard service, but it was performed a little after the hungarian mode. [?? – JMB]
After a few days ride – altogether seven from Belgrade (making more than 60 km/day) – across the Hungarian Plain, Bertrandon arrived in Pest. During his trip he noticed the great number of wild horses, the source of the rich market in Szeged. (Actually, he also heard that Pest can also supply thousands of horses; there they were sold by “stables,” i. e., ten for 200 florins, which he found very cheap, once again.) Having crossed the Danube there, he came to Buda.
Buda is the capital of Hungary, situated on an eminence and is larger than broad. To the east is the Danube, to the west a valley and to the south a palace which command the gate of the town: it was begun by the present emperor [Sigismund – JMB] and when he shall finished it, will be extensive and strong. On this side, but without the wall are very handsome hot baths. […]The town is governed by Germans, as well to police and commerce, and what regards the different professions. Many Jews live there who speak French well, several of them being descendants of those driven formerly from France.
De la Brocquiere then went back to Pest (on the east side of the river) where he met French craftsmen, invited there by Sigismund, who – after his travels in France – wanted to establish royal manufactures in Hungary. Nothing came of the plan. There he heard the rumor that the king-emperor planned to have a chain built across the Danube to control the traffic, but Bertrandon found this unrealistic, the river being too wide there. (He was wrong; at the narrowest point the Danube is less than 400 meters wide and thus the chain would have been half as long as that across the Golden Horn.) Reporting about the mineral wealth of the country, he praises the quality of the salt, which he, correctly, lists as the basis of the