Propylaeum

This volume takes a detailed look at a period of the Carpathian Basin that has so far not been known at all, or only scarcely known at all: the eastern expansion of the Carolingian Empire - those scarcely 100 years that lie between the fall of the Avar Khaganate and the emergence of the Hungarian principality.
Pannonia, the new eastern province of the Carolingian Empire, comprised most of Transdanubia and the Sava-Drava interfluve, where smaller counties were established from the middle of the 9th century. The best known of these was the county in Lower Pannonia with its centre Mosaburg, which Priwina and his son Chezil developed into Zalavár-Vársziget (Castle Island) from the 840s. In Lower Pannonia, which belonged to the missionary district of the Salzburg archbishopric, up to 30 churches were built between 840 and 870, five of which are already considered archaeologically identified today. Constantine (Cyril) and his brother, Methodius, who was appointed Archbishop of Pannonia, were briefly active in Mosaburg. At the end of the 880s, a royal palace of Arnolf of Carinthia, the East Frankish king, stood here. He left Mosaburg to Duke Braslav in 896, who surrounded the settlement with a strong rampart construction.
Thanks to the excavations that have continued for over 70 years, we now have a reliable picture of the history of the settlement, the architectural and artistic monuments, the social hierarchy, the ethnic composition and the cultural connections of the Mosaburg county.