Whence the name of Petrovaradin?

What is the origin of the name of our old historic fortress of Petrovaradin which still counts among the most significant fortifications in our Monarchy and under the walls of which the destiny of our Empire was often resolved – the issue is still veiled in darkness and the enigma has not been solved yet. And the solution to the enigma is of great importance indeed, and research in this issue is indubitably of interest not only to the inhabitants of the town and its vicinity, but also in general, for such a research leads to the earliest source of the history of this fortress: the name 'Petrovaradin' is doubtlessly related to the original trench later turned into a fort; in old times, places used to be named in accordance with the local situation, and here the name was taken after a person, and such a person must have played a major role in the construction and establishment of the fortress, or in the building of the first wall.

One used to take it, in an imaginary combination, that the name of the fortress had come from Peter the Hermit; on the other hand, some claimed  that the fortress had been named after Peter of Amiens. Yet those tales could not be confirmed by any document in writing; they are not grounded on history, and can only be taken as hardly believable hypotheses. The presumption that the name had come from Peter the Hermit is at the very first sight of the kind which enables one to realize that it had derived from folk tales; I shall therefore disregard it. Likewise, the naming related to Peter of Amiens, when judged historically, raises great doubts. First of all, we should think of the fact that there is no trace of the name of 'Petrovaradin' in any historical document or charter from the age of the Crusaders' passage across our fatherland and a long time thereafter.
Thus, establishing relation between the name of Petrovaradin's fortress and Peter of Amiens can only be taken as a piece of guesswork, and the guesswork is so feeble that all of its power lies in the chance similarity of the names. For Peter was only hastily passing this land with his convoy, and had no time to build any forts here. And if the fortification of Petrovaradin had been in existence then, it must already have had its name, so there was no need to give it the name of a man who had merely passed therethrough.
 However, the guesswork is entirely annihilated by the written document with which the Abbey in Petrovaradin was founded. In the charter of King Béla IV (Diploma no. 216) which is kept in the State Archives in Budapest and was issued in the year 1237, whereby the Bélakut Cistercian Abbey was founded, it is clearly stated that he (Béla IV) grants to the abbey all those estates situated on the left bank of the Danube and bearing the name of Petrovar. The endowment also incorporates the Crown's town there which used to be the property of that Peter who fell into disgrace due to his crimes. At an earlier point, the royal charter/diploma makes a mention of the monastery which used to be within the commune and was referred to as Ökörd, and which stood on the place now called Majur (Ludwig's and Rock's Valleys); further, the diploma enlists all the estates granted to the abbey in Srem/Syrmia, and only after that Petrovaradin which lies on the Bačka side of the Danube is mentioned. It was a trench-enclosed fort of Petra/Petura, referred to as Petur's Fort/(Pétervár/ Petrovaradin. – As time was passing by, the Petrovaradin in Bačka was named Vásárvárad, 'Trading Fort', yet also retained its old name – Old Petrovaradin. – There is a document in the Verančić family archive which referred to this commune as Stari (Old) Pterovaradin – in the 16th century. Telling about the Fall of Belgrade, the same document also tells as follows: "With some 17 to 18 thousand of troops, Palatine Stevan Batori set off to war from Stari Petrovaradin on the Danubian riverside opposite to Petrovaradin." And it is clear from this excerpt that the original Stari (Old) Petrovaradin and Novi (New) Petrovaradin were situated on two opposite banks of the Danube; it is clear that the Petrovaradin of today was named after that little town which once lied on the left bank of the Danube where Novi Sad is situated nowadays, the town which gave itself the name of Old Petrovaradin so as to be differed from the new town of Petrovaradin, the one on the right bank of the Danube.  It is shown therefrom that in the abovesaid diploma of Béla IV reference was made of the Petrovaradin situated on the left side of the Danube. The fact that the town lied on the Danube's riverside is seen from the manner of ordering the granted estates of the Bélakut Abbey in the diploma according to their distance from the Danube, starting with the closest. Anyway, this commune retained the name in later times as well, including those during the Turkish wars. Thus, in the 1665 conscription books, Petrovaradin in the Bodrog County is referred to as the property of the Archbishop of Kálocs (State Archive. Eccl. F. 6, no. 9.). Moreover, in the 1701 census books, Petrovaradin is a commune of the Bačka County which is within the jurisdiction of the Kálocs Archbishopric (State Archive. Eccl. F. 6, no. 12.).

(In order avoid misunderstanding we note here that as early as in 1701, the extant Petrovaradin was within the Syrmian Bishopric, and this tells about two Petrovaradins in that time – one in the Bačka, the other in the Srem.) Also, it is beyond any doubt that Petrovaradin had a ferry on the Danube, which facilitated communication with the villages that were part of the Abbey's estates. This is deduced from the fact that – according to the basic diploma the tax-payers of the Bačka were obliged to carry their in-kind payments to Petrovaradin yet did not need to take it across the Danube. What speaks in support of the claim is the 1267 Letter of Endowment by King Stephen/Istvan V which mentions the ferry and the market-sites of the two Petrovaradins which are on either bank of the Danube. The name of the Petrovaradin in the Bačka had already been extended to the town in the Srem, while on the Bačka side a trading site was established – hence the name of 'Trading Fort'.  The 1522 conscription book (State Archive. N.R. F. 1710, no. 27.) mentions the 'Trading Fort', and this provides evidence that the main market place of Petrovaradin, which had until then grown into a warfare stronghold and become the centre of the lowland region, was on Novi Sad's side of the Danube, where transportation for the fortress was also organized. In later times, too, when Novi Sad became a trading centre and the capital of the Bodrog County, this settlement was referred to as Petrovaradin or Petrovaradinschanze ('-trench') in the minutes of the county's assembly sessions.

Now comes the question: Who was the Peter mentioned in the royal letter whose name was given to Peterwardein? The main letter only says that the King grants the inheritance and personal properties of Peter Terei (Turvey, in Old Hungarian spelling) to the monastery; it is from a later document that Peter was grand zhupan (county governor). In the year 1267, Stevan/Istvan V granted the monastery to Andrija, a court official – together with the transportation right for either of the two banks, and it is said that the transportation rights had belonged to Peter the Zhupan, son of Terei, who was deprived of his properties for the reason of disloyalty. (State Archive, Diploma 630). In other words, the estates of the onetime Petrovaradin Abbey used to belong to Grand Zhupan Terei from whom they were confiscated on the grounds of high treason. – That is the Peter whose name was given to Petrovaradin Fortress.

Thus, it can be concluded as an indisputable fact that Petrovaradin was on the left bank of the Danube at first, in the place where a fort (castle) stood – on what is Novi Sad today – which fort had been taken away from Grand Zhupan Peter Terei fallen in disgrace due to high treason by King Bela IV who granted it to the Belakut Cistercian monastery. It is the original home of Peter Terei that was called Petrovaradin, after the owner. The name was later transferred to the present-day Petrovaradin, and the part lying in the Srem was referred to as Petrovaradin, while the one on the Bačka side was called Old Petrovaradin. These are the facts grounded on documents. Any other conclusion is but a folk tale.
Melchior Erdujhelyi