The story of this place
On 29 August 1526, on the plain of Mohács south of the Danube, the army of King Louis II met the Ottoman forces of Suleiman the Magnificent. In perhaps ninety minutes the Hungarian army was annihilated: some 14,000 soldiers fell, along with much of the nobility and clergy, and the 20-year-old king drowned fleeing across a swollen stream. The defeat shattered the medieval kingdom. Within decades Hungary was partitioned — Ottoman-ruled centre, Habsburg west, and the principality of Transylvania — a division that lasted over 150 years. 'More was lost at Mohács' became a Hungarian proverb for irretrievable disaster. A memorial park with carved wooden grave-markers now stands over the mass graves discovered on the field.