István Petrovics (Szeged)
It is a general statement of Hungarian urban historical research that foreign guests (hospites) contributed greatly to the creation of medieval towns in the Middle Danube Basin. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries the guests came primarily from Flanders, northern France (Walloons), Lorraine, and Lombardy. Hungarian sources refer to them as Latini (Latins) or Gallici and Italici. They were followed in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries by Germans (Teutonici and Saxones). From the second half of the thirteenth century German ascendancy became obvious in most of the towns of the Hungarian kingdom. It is important to note, however, that from the thirteenth century onward the term hospes referred primarily not to foreign immigrants, but to persons who during the process of colonisation had acquired a special legal status and were not necessarily of foreign origin.
This paper investigates the complex question of town development in the southern parts of the Hungarian kingdom. The conclusion is that urban growth in this region differed to a certain extent from the general pattern of Hungarian medieval town development, and that the number and impact of foreign settlers was not so significant in the southeastern part of Hungary as in other regions of the realm. This conclusion is based on the author's research into the history of the following towns: Pécs, Szeged, Cenad (Csanád), Timisoara (Temesvár) and Lipova (Lippa). He also makes efforts in order to clarify the role of Cumans, Serbians and Rumanians in the life of south Hungarian towns.