Journey from Vienna. 75 



basins, jetteaux, &c. The royal habitation and the gardens 

 were at the foot of the mountain, on the banks of the Danube, 

 where they could not occupy a very considerable space, but 

 the castle was on the isolated point of an eminence, about 650 

 feet above the Danube, which, in this part, may be about 400 

 feet above the sea. Vissegrad is a Sclavonian word, and de- 

 rives its name from its position ; Vissi, most high, and Hrad 

 or Grad, a castle. 



It was in the castle of Vissegrad, then considered as the 

 most secure in Hungary, that the crown sent by pope Sylves- 

 ter II. to St. Stephen, as a gift from heaven, was preserved. 

 This was agreeably to an ordinance of Lladislas II. ; it was 

 placed in the most inaccessible part of the fortress, and con- 

 fided to keepers, selected from among the Grandees, who were 

 under an oath only to resign it to the nation assembled, and 

 to lay down their lives in the defence of it. This consecrated 

 crown, however, was often carried away during the troubles ; 

 sometimes by the dethroned kings, who, by that means, pre- 

 vented the coronation of their successors, and sometimes by 

 those who pretended to the throne. It has frequently given 

 rise to bloody wars, and thousands have fallen victims to pre- 

 serve or to regain it. Such was the high importance attached 

 to it, that the place of its custody was fixed by a decree of the 

 nation assembled, nor was it to be removed but by a similar 

 order. Joseph II. had it removed from Presburg (where it 

 had been deposited by an order of the assembly of 1608) to 

 Vienna, but this act of authority was considered as arbitrary, 

 and derogating from the rights of the nation. It contributed 

 not a little to retard the various reforms which that monarch 

 had projected. Fears were entertained of a general insurrec- 

 tion, and Joseph, in rescinding many of his acts, addressed a 

 manifesto to the nation, which shewed that his object was the 

 general good, and that his intentions were grounded in purity, 

 justice, and equity. The crown was lastly removed to Buda 

 by another order of Joseph, Feb. 18, 1790, two days before 

 his death, and this event was hailed with transports of joy 

 throughout the whole kingdom. 



The castle of Vissegrad, taken and retaken alternately by 

 the Germans and Turks, is now a huge heap of ruins. Close 

 to the Danube we yet find some old towers and a wall, with 

 bastions, ascending thence to the summit of the mountain, to 

 communicate with the principal fortress. The ruins of the 

 latter are very considerable, in walls and round towers. We 

 may plainly distinguish the double walls that formed the ex- 

 terior inclosure, between which lay the pathway that led to 

 the fortress. In the interior appear two successive fosses, one 



