First Battle of Komárom (1849)

The Second Battle of Komárom, also known as the Battle of Ács, took place on 2 July 1849 between the Hungarian Revolutionary Army (led by General Artúr Görgei) and the Imperial Austrian Army of the Austrian Empire (led by Supreme Commander Field Marshal Julius von Haynau); a contingent of almost 12,000 Russian Empire troops was led by Lieutenant General Fyodor Sergeyevich Panyutyin. The Austrian army outnumbered the Hungarian troops two to one, and had a multitude of infantry (landwehr, grenadiers, seressaner, and kaiserjägers), light infantry (uhlans, dragoons, cossacks, and chevau-léger), heavy cavalry (cuirassiers), and better weapons. The Hungarians, except for the Landwehr (Hungarian: Honvéd) and the hussars, had few types of military units. Other problems also negatively impacted the Hungarian army. The Lajos Kossuth government decided to withdraw the Hungarian troops from Komárom to southern Hungary without consulting Görgei, the war minister, the only one authorised to make a military decision. Görgei grudgingly agreed to the decision, fixing the date of departure for southern Hungary to 3 July. Uncertainty and conflicts existed among the Hungarian officers and soldiers before the attack. Kossuth sent Lieutenant General Lázár Mészáros to Komárom to relieve Görgei of leadership and send him to Pest. When Mészáros approached Komárom by steamboat on 2 July, however, he heard gunfire from the battle and returned to Pest. Austrian Supreme Commander Field Marshal Julius Jacob von Haynau planned to force the Hungarian troops to retreat to the fortress of Komárom; Haynau would besiege it from the south, opening the road toward Buda and Pest. After accomplishing this, most of Haynau's troops would advance east and occupy the Hungarian capitals before his allies (the Russian troops led by Ivan Paskevich) arrived. The battle began in the early morning of 2 July with an attack by the imperial I Corps (led by General Franz Schlick) from the direction of Ács, chasing the Hungarians from the Ács forest, pushing them into the fortifications south of Komárom, and capturing the Monostor trenches; this threatened to encircle the Hungarian troops. Görgei did not expect a major attack that day. Foreseeing that he would be dismissed and aware of the political animosity against him, he wrote a letter that night and early morning explaining his military decisions and attributing the military and political problems to Kossuth. Görgei stopped writing when he heard gunfire from the battle. He rushed to the battlefield and found the Hungarian VIII Corps in flight, leaving the fortress's western trenches and some fortifications in Austrian hands. Görgei halted the retreat with grapeshot and volley fire and ordered the troops to regroup and, with the support of II and VII Corps, chase Schlick's troops from the fortifications and the Ács forest. The Hungarian counter-attack, supported from the southern Herkály grange by VII Corps cavalry led by General Ernő Poeltenberg, threatened Schlick's left flank with separation from the rest of the imperial army. The imperial army was saved by the Russian division (led by Lieutenant General Fyodor Panyutyin) and the Austrian I Corps Simbschen-Brigade; Poeltenberg retreated to escape encirclement, stopping the Hungarian advance. The Austrian IV Corps reserve brigade, led by General Lajos Benedek, occupied Ószőny and opened the route toward Buda and Pest. Hungarian III Corps General György Klapka ordered several counter-attacks to reoccupy the strategic position but, despite initial success, his troops were forced to retreat. Haynau was unaware of the battlefield situation and, believing his troops were victorious, ordered his center (IV Corps) to withdraw; this put his army in danger from a Hungarian attack. Görgei saw the opportunity, and intended to concentrate his cavalry and artillery units in the center. Haynau's brigade commanders (Simbschen, Ludwig, and Lederer) and Panyutyin recognized the danger and closed the gap. Görgei, wanting to retake Ószőny, decided to force the Austrians to send reinforcements from the flanks to the center with a cavalry and artillery attack. Klapka sent the III Corps cavalry to help him, hoping that this would force Benedek to withdraw his troops from Ószőny and send reinforcements to the center. The Hungarian hussar charge was commanded by Görgei and Poeltenberg, repelling Austrian cavalry units. Its artillery (which followed the cavalry) launched cannon fire which struck the Austrian headquarters in Csém from which Franz Joseph I of Austria was observing the battle, forcing Haynau, the headquarters and the emperor to retreat to Bana. The Hungarian cavalry attack, in which 24 hussar companies (3,000 riders) participated – the largest Hungarian cavalry charge of the revolution – achieved its objective, and Klapka recaptured Ószőny. Görgei, leading the hussars, was severely injured in the head by cannon fire. Bleeding, he tried to send orders to his troops until he fainted at the end of the battle. The reinforced Austrian cavalry and artillery pushed the Hungarian cavalry back until both armies retreated from the battlefield at about 8:00 p.m. The battle may be regarded as a Hungarian victory; Haynau's plans to encircle the Hungarian troops in Komárom and occupy the Hungarian capitals failed, and his troops were forced to retreat from the strategic positions occupied by them during the battle. The destruction of the imperial army was prevented by Haynau's subordinates, who filled its gap before the Hungarian cavalry arrived. The day after the battle, the Hungarian generals learned about Kossuth's removal of Görgei from command; their protests forced the governor-president to allow Görgei to continue leading the Army of the Upper Danube. Görgei fought his way eastward in mid-July through northern Hungary against the five-times-larger Russian army, led by Ivan Paskevich.

The main aim of the third Battle of Komárom was to push back the Austrian army, easing the task of the Hungarian army to retreat towards South-East. The Hungarian Government agreed on a Hungarian attack against the Austrian troops led by Julius Jacob von Haynau, which was stationing to East and South-East from the fortress of Komárom. On 11 July the Hungarian army started to attack the Austrians. Although General Artúr Görgei was the commander of the Hungarian Army of the Upper Danube, General György Klapka took over the command of Görgey's army because of Görgey's injury in the Second Battle of Komárom from 2 July 1849. New Hungarian troops arrived under the command of Ármin Görgey, and from Bátorkeszi under József Nagysándor, decreasing the Hungarian numerical disadvantage in relation to the Austrian army led by Julius Jacob von Haynau. The Hungarian army's (comprising 58 infantry battalions, 68 cavalry battalions, and 200 cannon) corps which participated in the attack against the Austrian positions were under the command of Colonel Ferenc Aschermann, Ernő Poeltenberg (II. corps), Károly Leiningen-Westerburg (III. corps), József Nagysándor (I. corps) and General Gusztáv Pikéthy (the Pikéthy cavalry division). The right flank fought with Schlik's corps. Although Leiningen was successful in pushing back the Austrian troops around Csém, as well as the II. corps too, which advanced through the Meggyfa- and Ács forests, the Hungarians could not turn these successes to their advantage because of the inactivity of Nagysándor and Pikéthy. At Csém there was a fierce artillery fight with great losses. The battle finished at 5 pm with the retreat of the Hungarian troops. The Austrians lost 800 men, while the losses of the Hungarians are uncertain. This battle was the bloodiest fight during the revolution. Although the Hungarians did not achieve the victory, they still managed to start their retreat from Komárom, leaving a contingent of nearly 20 000 soldiers to defend the fortress under General Klapka.

The Fourth Battle of Komárom was fought in 30 July and 3 August 1849 between the Hungarian garrison of the fortress of Komárom led by General György Klapka and the besieging Austrian army led by Lieutenant field marshal Anton Freiherr Csorich von Monte Creto. Thanks to the capturing, by a Hungarian detachment of Hussars, of a statement containing the number of the besieging Austrian II. corps, Klapka understood, that he actually has numerical superiority over the besiegers. So in two sorties made on 30 July and 3 August he managed to crush their siege on the northern, then also on the southern section of the fortress, chasing them towards West, and causing them heavy losses. Thanks to this victory Klapka liberated the region between Komárom and Győr, planning to attack Austria, when he learned about the surrender of the Hungarian main troops from 13 August, and as result of this, he retreated with his troops in Komárom.

Komárom (Hungarian: Komáromi járás) is a district in north-western part of Komárom-Esztergom County. Komárom is also the name of the town where the district seat is found. The district is located in the Central Transdanubia Statistical Region.

The Europe Gate is a sculpture made out of LiTraCon, or Light Transmitting Concrete. It is a wall 3.5 meters squared and commemorates Hungary joining the European Union. It was built in 2004 in Fort Monostor in the town of Komárom by Áron Losonczi and Orsolya Vadász.

Fort Monostor (Hungarian: Monostori Erőd) (also referred to as Fort Sandberg) is a fort is situated close to the city of Komárom, Hungary. It was built between 1850 and 1871 like part of the fortification system of Komárom. After World War II the Soviets built the biggest ammunition storage in the Fortress of Monostor. Thousands of wagons of ammunition were forwarded from the strictly guarded objects. One of a series of forts in the area, Monostor is open to the public as a museum. It also hosts Europe Gate, a sculpture made of light-transmitting concrete.

Komárom (Hungarian: [ˈkomaːrom]; German: Komorn; Latin: Brigetio, later Comaromium; Slovak: Komárno) is a city in Hungary on the south bank of the Danube in Komárom-Esztergom County. Komárno, Slovakia, is on the northern bank. Komárom was formerly a separate village called Újszőny. In 1892 Komárom and Újszőny were connected with an iron bridge and in 1896 the two towns were united under the name city of Komárom. The fortress played an important role in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 and many contemporary English sources refer to it as the Fortress of Comorn.

Elizabeth Island in Komárno, Slovakia (Slovakian: Alžbetin ostrov, Hungarian: Erzsébet-sziget ) is one of the islands of the Danube, which stretches almost the entire length of the city on the northern bank of the river. It is approximately 2.5 km long and 350 m wide. Elizabeth's bridge leading from Komárom was built at the eastern end of the island in 1892 and is connected to Komárno by a folding bridge built in 1968. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was connected to the mainland by filling in a wide strip of land at the western end, so that the Danube arm bordering the island from the north (which the people of Komárom call the Little Danube) became a bay. It was named - like the bridge - in honor of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, who sailed from Vienna to Pest and set foot on Hungarian soil for the first time. Historically, the island was called Várkormányzói, Komárňanský, and in times of socialism the island of the Red Fleet.

Church of the Dormition of the Theotokos (Slovak: Chrám Zosnutia presvätej Bohorodičky, Serbian Cyrillic: Црква Успења Пресвете Богородице) is a Eastern Orthodox church in Komárno in Slovakia. The church is dedicated to the Dormition of the Theotokos. Following the establishment of the Communist rule in Czechoslovakia the care for the church was transferred from the Eparchy of Buda of the Serbian Orthodox to the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia which since then takes care of the site while ″maintaining a fraternal relation with the Serbian Orthodox Church″.The current church building dates back to the 18th century when it was completed in 1770, but an earlier Serbian Orthodox church existed at the same spot from 1511. Church records were kept from the first half of the 18th century. The church has been in its current form since 1851 when the previously burned tower was renovated. In 1905, it was reported to be in very good condition both externally and internally, but it didn't have a permanent priest. After the First World War, the Serbian community in the town was reduced to only a few individuals, so the church remained unused for several decades. In recent years, the church has been renovated, and religious services are regularly held on Sundays and holidays. In 2019 Archbishop of Prešov, Metropolitan of the Czech Lands and Slovakia Rastislav invited Serbian Orthodox Bishop of Buda from Szentendre, Hungary to organize joint Divine Liturgy in the building. According to Serbian custom, a blessing and breaking of the Slava cake were held after the Liturgy testifying to the preservation of this tradition despite the fact that the majority of contemporary believers are not of Serbian origin.

The Museum of Danube in Komárno is a cultural and natural history museum in Komárno, Slovakia. The museum processes and makes accessible documents on the development of nature and society of the southern part of the Danube lowland and of Hungarian nationality culture in the Slovak Republic.

Komárom county (in Latin: comitatus Comaromiensis, in Hungarian: Komárom (vár)megye, in Slovak: Komárňanský komitát / Komárňanská stolica / Komárňanská župa, in German: Komorner Gespanschaft / Komitat Komorn) was an administrative county (comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary, situated on both sides of the Danube river. Today, the territory to the north of the Danube is part of Slovakia, while the territory to the south of the Danube is part of Hungary.

J. Selye University (Hungarian: Selye János Egyetem, Slovak: Univerzita J. Selyeho) is the only Hungarian-language university in Slovakia. It was established in 2004 in Komárno (Hungarian: (Rév)Komárom) and it has three faculties. It is named after Hans Selye (Hungarian: Selye János), a 20th-century Hungarian endocrinologist (see: Education in Slovakia). The number of students attending the university has increased from 1731 in 2015 to 1894 in 2020.