Chioar Fortress

Chioar Fortress is located in Remetea Chioarului, Romania, and dates to the medieval period. The place name connected to the stronghold appears in records from the mid-14th century, while documentary references to activity at the site reach back to 1319 when the location is recorded as a residence of the noble Gutkeled family.

Through the 14th century the castle passed among prominent Hungarian-era magnates. András Lackfi is listed as lord during the 1350s and his son Imre is named in 1368 in connection with the voivode’s seat at Kővár. In the 1370s the fortress is described as a royal castle, and between 1375 and 1378 control passed to Balk and Drág of Beltiug, voivodes of Maramureș, with the place recorded under the Latin form “Kewar castrum.”

King Louis the Great confirmed a donation of the lordship in 1378, and Sigismund of Luxembourg reaffirmed that grant in 1405; by that year the domain attached to the fortress comprised fifty-eight settlements. The house of Dragoș kept the lordship until that lineage died out in 1555.

From the second half of the 16th century the castle returned to royal possession and is described in contemporary records as one of the major fortresses within the Principality of Transylvania. Local inhabitants were bound by duties to supply men and resources for the stronghold’s defence, and the fort was commanded by a chief captain, an office ranked among the principality’s important posts. After Leopold I incorporated Transylvania into Habsburg domains in 1690 the fortress steadily lost its military role. In 1718 General Rabutin ordered cannon fire that demolished the works to prevent their occupation by the kuruc forces of Rákóczi. The site is today recorded as a Romanian historic monument (LMI code MM-I-s-A-04369) and appears in the National Archaeological Repertoire with code 108525.01.01; it lies within the Lăpuș Gorge Natural Reserve.