Great Moravia
Great Moravia (
Old Church Slavonic approximately
'елья Морава,
Slovak Veľká Morava,
Czech Velká Morava,
Latin Magna Moravia) was a
Slavic empire existing in Central Europe between
833 and the early
10th century. Its core territory lay on both sides of the
Morava river, in present-day
Slovakia, the
Czech Republic and
Austria.
The Empire was founded when Prince
Mojmír I unified by force the neighboring
Principality of Nitra with his own Moravian Principality in 833. Unprecedented cultural development resulted from the mission of
Saints Cyril and Methodius, who came during the reign of Prince
Rastislav in 863. The Great Moravian Empire reached its greatest territorial extent under King
Svatopluk I (871-894). Weakened by internal struggle and frequent wars with the
Frankish Empire, Great Moravia was ultimately overrun by
Magyar invaders in the early 10th century and its remnants were later divided between the
Kingdom of Hungary,
Bohemia,
Poland, and the
Holy Roman Empire.
The designation "Great Moravia" - "Ἡ Μεγάλη Μοραβία" originally stems from the work
De Administrando Imperio written by the Byzantine Emperor
Constantine VII Porphyrogenitos around 950.
[De Administrando Imperio.] The word "Moravia" did not refer only to present-day
Moravia, but to a country situated on both sides of the
Morava river, whose (currently unknown) capital was also plausibly called Morava.
[It is not always clear whether an early medieval written source names a country or a town called Morava.] The adjective "Great" nowadays denotes Moravia plus the annexed territories. In
De Administrando Imperio, it may have rather meant "distant", because Byzantine texts used to distinguish between two countries of the same name using the attribute "little" for the territory closer to the Byzantine Empire (such as the
Morava rivers in
Serbia) and "great" for the more distant territory (such as the Morava river between Moravia and Slovakia).
The use of the term
(Great) Slovak Empire instead of Great Moravia is promoted by some Slovak authors who try to define it as an early
Slovak state. This term has not been adopted by mainstream historians.
Foundation
A kind of predecessor of Great Moravia was
Samo's Empire, encompassing the territories of Moravia, Slovakia,
Lower Austria and probably extending also to
Bohemia,
Sorbia at the
Elbe, and temporarily to
Carinthia between 623 and 658. Although this tribal union plausibly did not survive its founder, it created favorable conditions for formation of the local Slavic aristocracy.
[Graves dated to the period after King Samo's death show that the Avars returned to some of their lost territories. However, archaeological findings from the same period (such as an exquisite noble tomb in Blatnica) also indicate formation of a Slavic upper class on the territory that later became the nucleus of Great Moravia. See Štefanovičová (1989).]In the late 8th century, the Morava river basin and western Slovakia, inhabited by the Slavs and situated at the
Frankish border, flourished economically. Construction of new
hill forts indicates that political integration was driven by regional strongmen protected by their armed retinues. The so-called
Blatnica-Mikulčice culture, partially inspired by the contemporaneous Western European and
Avar art, arose from this economic and political development.
[Štefanovičová (1989).] In the 790s, the Slavs settled on the middle
Danube overthrew the Avar yoke in connection with
Charlemagne's campaigns against the Avars. Further centralisation of power and progress in creation of state structures of the Slavs living in this region followed.
As a result, two major states emerged: the Moravian Principality originally situated in present-day southeastern
Moravia and westernmost Slovakia (with the probable center in
Mikulčice) and the Principality of Nitra, located in present-day western, central and northern eastern
Slovakia (with the center in
Nitra). The Moravian Principality was mentioned for the first time in Frankish sources in 822. Its ruler
Mojmír I supported Christian missionaries coming from
Passau and he also arguably accepted Frankish formal suzerenaity.
[Moravians already paid homage to the Frankish Emperor at the Diet in Frankfurt in 822 (Royal Frankish Annals).] Nitra was ruled by Prince
Pribina, who, although probably still a pagan himself, built the first Christian church in Slovakia (
828).
[Conversio.] In 833, Mojmír I ousted Pribina from Nitra and the two principalities became united under the same ruler. Excavations revealed that at least two Nitrian castles (Pobedim and Čingov) were destroyed during the conquest. But Pribina with his family and retinue escaped to the Franks and their king
Louis the German granted him the
Balaton principality.
After unification
|
Rastislav as an Orthodox Saint (modern depiction) |
What modern historians and
Constantine VII designate as "Great" Moravia arose in
833 from the above mentioned Mojmír's conquest of the Principality of Nitra. In 846, Mojmír I was succeeded by his nephew
Rastislav (846-870). Although he was originally chosen by Frankish king Louis the German, the new prince pursued an independent policy. After stopping a Frankish attack in 855, he also sought to weaken influence of Frankish priests preaching in his realm. Rastislav asked the
Byzantine Emperor Michael III to send teachers who would interpret the Christianity in the Slavic vernacular. Upon this request, two brothers, Byzantine officials and missionaries
Saints Cyril and Methodius came in
863.
Cyril developed the
first Slavic alphabet and translated the Gospel into the
Old Church Slavonic language. Texts translated or written by Cyril and Methodius are considered to be the oldest literature in the Slavic languages. Rastislav was also preoccupied with security and administration of his state. Numerous fortified castles built thorough the country are dated to his reign and some of them (e.g.
Devín Castle) are mentioned in connection with Rastislav by Frankish chronicles.
[Annals of Fulda.]During Rastislav's reign, the Principality of Nitra was given to his nephew Svatopluk as an appanage. The rebellious prince allied himself with the Franks and overthrew his uncle in 870. The beginning of
Svatopluk I's reign was turbulent as his former Frankish allies refused to leave the western part of his empire. The young prince was even taken captive by the Franks and the country rallied around
Slavomír who led an uprising against the invaders in 871. Released Svatopluk finally took over the command of the insurgents and drove the Franks from Great Moravia. In the subsequent years, he successfully defended independence of his realm from
Eastern Francia and subjected many neighbouring lands. As the first Great Moravian leader, Svatopluk I (871-894) assumed the title of the king (
rex). Under his reign, the Great Moravian Empire reached its greatest territorial extent, when not only Moravia and Slovakia but also present-day northern Hungary, Lower Austria, Bohemia, Silesia, Lusatia and southern Poland belonged to the empire. Svatopluk also withstood several attacks of proto-Magyar tribes and
Bulgaria.
In 880, the
Pope John VIII issued the
Bull Industriae Tuae, by which he set up an independent ecclesiastical province in Great Moravia with Archbishop
Methodius as its head. He also named the German cleric
Wiching the Bishop of
Nitra, and Old Church Slavonic was recognized as the fourth liturgical language, besides Latin, Greek and Hebrew.
Decline and fall
After the death of King Svatopluk in 894, his sons
Mojmír II (894-906?) and
Svatopluk II succeeded him as the King of Great Moravia and the Prince of Nitra respectively. However, they started to quarrel for domination of the whole Empire. Weakened by an internal conflict as well as by constant warfare with Eastern Francia, Great Moravia lost most of its peripheral territories. The proto-
Magyar nomadic tribes also took advantage and invaded the Danubian Basin. Both Mojmír II and Svatopluk II probably died in battles with the proto-Magyars between 904 and 907 because their names are not mentioned in written sources after 906.
In
three battles (July 4-5 and August 9,
907) near
Bratislava, the Magyars routed
Bavarian armies. Historians traditionally put this year as the date of breakup of the Great Moravian Empire. However, there are sporadic references to Great Moravia from later years (e.g. 924/925, 942).
[In 924/925, both Folkuin in his Gesta abb. Lobiensium and Ruotger in Archiepiscopi Coloniensis Vita Brunonis mention Great Moravia. From 925 until 931, there are several references to certain counts Mojmír and Svatopluk in official documents from Salzburg, though the origin of the two nobles is not clear. In 942, Magyar warriors captured in Al Andalus said that Moravia is the northern neighbor of their people. See Havlík (1992).] The fate of northern and western parts of former Great Moravia in the 10th century is thus largely unclear.
The western part of the Great Moravian core territory (present-day Moravia) was annexed by
Bohemia after 955. In 999 it was taken over by Poland under
Boleslaus I of Poland and returned to Bohemia in 1019. As for the eastern part of the Great Moravian core territory (present-day Slovakia), its southernmost parts were conquered by the Hungarian chieftain
Lehel (Lél) around 925 and they fell under domination of the old Magyar dynasty of
Arpads after 955. The rest remained under the rule of the local proto-Slovak aristocracy (western Slovakia maybe sharing the fate of Moravia from 955 to 999). In 1000 or 1001, all of Slovakia was taken over by Poland under Boleslaus I, and in 1030 the southern half of Slovakia was again taken over by
Hungary. The rest of Slovakia had been progressively integrated into the Kingdom of Hungary from the end of the 11th century until the 14th century). Since the 10th century, the population of this territory has been evolving into the present-day
Slovaks.
#
Mojmír I (833-846) #
Rastislav (846-870) #
Slavomír (871) #
Svatopluk I (871-894) #
Mojmír II (894-?906)
|
Approximate borders of Great Moravia at its greatest extent on an older map (in 890 - 894) |
The territory of Great Moravia included:
* 833-?907: today's Slovakia + Moravia + Lower Austria (territory north of the Danube)+ Hungary (territory north to
Budapest and
Theiss River, except for western Hungary)
* 874-?: plus a strip of about 100-250km of present-day Poland above Slovak border (
Vistula Basin,
Krakow)
* 880-?: plus a strip of about 100-250km of present-day Poland above Czech border (
Silesia)
* 880-896: plus remaining present-day
Hungary east of the
Danube * 880/883/884-894: plus the remaining present-day Hungary (up to
Vienna)
* 888/890-895: plus
Bohemia* 890-897: plus
LusatiaAs for the history of Bohemia - annexed by Great Moravia for five to seven years (from 888/890 to 895) - the crucial year is 895, when the Bohemians broke away from the empire and became vassals of
Arnulf of Carinthia. Independent Bohemia, ruled by the dynasty of
Přemyslids, began to gradually emerge.
The inhabitants of Great Moravia were designated
"Slovene", which is an old Slavic word meaning the "Slavs". The same name was also used by (future) Slovenians and Slavonians at that time. People of Great Moravia are sometimes called "Moravian peoples" by Slavic texts, and
"Sclavi" (i.e. the Slavs), "Winidi" (another name for the Slavs), "Moravian Slavs" or "Moravians" by
Latin texts. The present-day terms "
Slovaks" / "
Slovakia" (in Slovak:
Slováci /
Slovensko) and "
Slovenes" / "
Slovenia" (in Slovene:
Slovenci /
Slovenija) arose later from the above
"Slovene".
Towns and castles
|
Ruins of a Great Moravian castle in Ducové |
According to
Geographus Bavarus, 30 out of the 41 Great Moravian castles (
civitates) were situated on the territory of present-day Slovakia and the remaining 11 in Moravia.
[Geographus Bavarus.] These numbers are also corroborated by archaeological evidence. The only castles which are mentioned by name in written texts are
Nitra (828),
[Conversio.] Devín Castle (today in Bratislava) (864),
[Annals of Fulda.] Bratislava (907),
[Annals of Salzburg.] and
Uzhhorod (in
Ukraine) (903). Many other (for example
Mikulčice and
Staré Město in Moravia; Pobedim,
Ducové,
Trenčín, and
Beckov in the
Váh river valley; Ostrá skala in
Orava; Čingov and Spišské Tomášovce in
Spiš;
Esztergom in
Hungary; Gars-Thunau in
Austria) were identified by excavations.
Most Great Moravian castles were rather large
hill forts, fortified by wooden palisades, stone walls and in some cases, moats. Most buildings were made of timber, but ecclesiastical and residential parts were made of stone. At least some churches (e.g. in Bratislava) were decorated by frescoes, plausibly painted by Italian masters since the chemical composition of colors was the same as in northern Italy. In Nitra and Mikulčice, several castles and settlements formed a huge fortified urban agglomeration. Other castles (e.g. Ducové) served as regional administrative centers, ruled by a local nobleman. Their form was probably inspired by
Carolingian estates called
curtis.
[Štefanovičová (1989).] The largest castles were usually protected by a chain of smaller forts. Forts (e.g. Beckov) also controlled trade routes and provided shelter for peasants in case of a military attack.
Although location of the Great Moravian capital has not been safely identified, the fortified town of Mikulčice with its palace and 12 churches is the most widely accepted candidate.
[Poulík (1975).] Nitra, the second center of the Empire, was ruled autonomously by the heir of the dynasty as an
appanage. However, it is fair to note that early medieval kings spent a significant part of their lives campaigning and traveling around their realms due to the lack of reliable administrative capacities. It is thus very likely that they also resided from time to time in other important royal estates, such as Devín and Bratislava.
[The Devín Castle is mentioned in the Annales Fuldenses as a fortress of Prince Rastislav. Importance of the Bratislava Castle is shown by its stone palace and a three-nave church.]Culture
Due to the lack of written documents, very little is known about the original
Slavic religion and mythology. The territory of Great Moravia was originally evangelized by missionaries coming from the Frankish Empire or Byzantine enclaves in Italy and
Dalmatia since the early 8th century (and sporadically earlier).
[Vita Methodii.] The first known Christian church of the Western and Eastern Slavs was built in 828 by
Pribina in his capital Nitra. The church, consecrated by Bishop Adalram of
Salzburg, was built in a style similar to contemporaneous Bavarian churches, while architecture of two Moravian churches from the early 9th century (in Mikulčice and Modrá) indicates influence of Irish missionaries.
[Poulík (1975).] The Church organization in Great Moravia was supervised by the Bavarian clergy until the arrival of Byzantine missionaries
Saints Cyril and Methodius in 863.
Foundation of the first Slavic bishopric (870), archbishopric (880), and monastery was the politically relevant outcome of the Byzantine mission initially devised by Prince Rastislav to strengthen his early feudal state. It is not known where the Great Moravian archbishop resided (a papal document mentions him as the archbishop of Moravia, Moravia being the name of a town), but there are several references to bishops of Nitra. Big three-nave basilicas unearthed in Mikulčice,
Uherské Hradiště, Bratislava, and Nitra were obviously ecclesiastical centers of the country, but their very construction may have predated the Byzantine mission. Nitra and Uherské Hradiště are also sites where monastic buildings have been excavated. A church built at Devín Castle is clearly inspired by Byzantine churches in
Macedonia (from where Cyril and Methodius came) and
rotundas, particularly popular among Great Moravian nobles, also have their direct predecessors in the Balkans.
[Štefanovičová (1989).] |
An example of the Glagolitic script created by Saint Cyril for the mission in Great Moravia |
But yields of the mission of Cyril and Methodius extended beyond the religious and political sphere. The
Old Church Slavonic became the fourth liturgical language of the Christian world, though its use in Great Moravia proper had gradually declined until it virtually vanished in the late Middle Ages. Its late form still remains the liturgical language of the
Russian,
Bulgarian, and
Serbian Orthodox Church. Cyril also invented the
Glagolitic alphabet, suitable for Slavic languages. He translated the Gospel and the first translation of the Bible into a Slavic language was later completed by his brother Methodius.
Methodius wrote the first Slavic legal code, combining the local
customary law with the advanced
Byzantine law. Similarly, the Great Moravian criminal law code was not merely a translation from Latin, but it also punished a number of offenses originally tolerated by the pre-Christian Slavic moral standards yet prohibited by the Christianity (mostly related to sexual life). The
canon law was simply adopted from the Byzantine sources.
There are not many literary works that can be unambiguously identified as originally written in Great Moravia. One of them is
Proglas, a cultivated poem in which Cyril defends the Slavic liturgy.
Vita Cyrilli (attributed to
Clement of Ohrid) and
Vita Methodii (written probably by Methodius' successor Gorazd) are biographies with precious information about Great Moravia under Rastislav and Svatopluk I.
The brothers also founded an academy, initially led by Methodius, which produced hundreds of Slavic clerics. A well-educated class was essential for administration of all early-feudal states and Great Moravia was no exception.
Vita Methodii mentions bishop of Nitra as Svatopluk I's chancellor and even Prince
Koceľ of the
Balaton Principality was said to master the Glagolitic script.
[Vita Methodii.] Location of the Great Moravian academy has not been identified, but the possible sites include Mikulčice (where some
styli have been found in an ecclesiastical building), Devín Castle (with a building identified as a probable school), and Nitra (with its Episcopal basilica and monastery). When Methodius' disciples were expelled from Great Moravia in 885, they disseminated their knowledge (including the Glagolitic script) to other Slavic countries, such as
Bulgaria,
Croatia, and Bohemia. They created the
Cyrillic alphabet, which became the standard alphabet in the Slavic Orthodox countries, including
Russia. The Great Moravian cultural heritage survived in Bulgarian seminaries, paving the way for evangelization of Eastern Europe.
Destruction of the Great Moravian Empire was rather gradual. Since excavations of Great Moravian castles show continuity of their settlement and architectural style after the alleged disintegration of the Empire, local political structures must have remained untouched by the disaster. Another reason is that the originally nomad old Magyars lacked siege engines to conquer Great Moravian fortifications. Nevertheless, the core of Great Moravia was finally integrated into the newly established states of
Bohemia and the
Kingdom of Hungary.
Great Moravian centers (e.g. Bratislava, Nitra, Zemplín) also retained their functions afterwards. As they became the seats of early Hungarian
administrative units, the administrative division of Great Moravia was probably just adopted by new rulers.
[Štefanovičová (1989).] Social differentiation in Great Moravia reached the state of early
feudalism, creating the social basis for development of later medieval states in the region.
[Kučera (1974).] A significant part of the local aristocracy remained more or less undisturbed by the fall of Great Moravia and their descendants became nobles in the newly formed Kingdom of Hungary.
[Lukačka (2002).] Therefore, it is not surprising that many Slavic words related to politics, law, and agriculture were
taken into the
Hungarian language.
[Štefanovičová (1989).] The most obvious example of political continuity is the
Principality of Nitra, which was ruled autonomously by heirs of the
Arpads dynasty " a practice similar to that of the Mojmírs dynasty in Great Moravia. Similarly, the Church organization survived invasion of the pagan Magyars at least to some degree.
[Pilgrim, Bishop of Passau, wrote to Pope Benedict VI in 974 about four Great Moravian bishops serving after the Magyars invaded Bavaria (i.e. after the alleged fall of the Empire in 907). Continuity of the Church organization is also confirmed by the list of Moravian bishops from the 14th century (Havlík, 1992).]Neither the demographic change was dramatic. As far as the graves can tell, there had been no influx of the Magyars into the core of former Great Moravia before
955. Afterwards, Magyar settlers appear in some regions of Southern Slovakia, but graves indicate a kind of cultural symbiosis (described as the
Belobrdo culture), not domination.
[Štefanovičová (1989).] Due to cultural changes, archaeologists are not able to identify the ethnicity of graves after the half of the 11th century (though it is usually possible to determine the ethnicity of a whole village). This is also why integration of central, eastern, and northern Slovakia into the Hungarian Kingdom is difficult to be documented by archaeology, and written sources have to be used.
The Byzantine double-cross thought to have been brought by Cyril and Methodius has remained the
symbol of Slovakia until today and the Constitution of Slovakia refers to Great Moravia in its preamble. Interest about that period rose as a result of the
national revival in the 19th century. Great Moravian history has been regarded as a cultural root of several Slavic nations in Central Europe (especially the Slovaks) and it was employed in vain attempts to create a single
Czechoslovak identity in the 20th century.
Primary sources
Annales Fuldenses.
Annals of Salzburg.
De Administrando Imperio written by
Constantine VII Porphyrogenitos around 950 in
Constantinople.
Geographus Bavarus, written in ca. 850 probably in
Regensburg.
Libellus de conversione Bagoariorum et Carantanorum (i.e.
Conversio), written in
Salzburg in the 870s.
Royal Frankish Annals, covering the period from 741 until 829.
Vita Methodii.Primary documents can be found in the following volumes:
*Havlík, Lubomír E. (1966-1977).
Magnae Moraviae Fontes Historici I.-V., Brno: Masarykova univerzita.
*Marsina, Richard (1971).
Codex diplomaticus et epistolaris Slovaciae I., Bratislava: Veda.
*Ratkoš, Peter (1964).
Pramene k dejinám Veľkej Moravy, Bratislava: Vydavateľstvo Slovenskej akadémie vied.
Secondary sources
*Dekan, Jan (1981).
Moravia Magna: The Great Moravian Empire, Its Art and Time, Minneapolis: Control Data Arts. ISBN 0-89893-084-7
*Havlík, Lubomír E. (1992).
Kronika o Velké Moravě, Brno: Iota.
*Kučera, Matúš (1974).
Slovensko po páde Veľkej Moravy, Bratislava: Veda.
*Lukačka, Ján (2002).
Formovanie vyššej šľachty na západnom Slovensku, Bratislava: Mistrál.
*Poulík, Josef (1975).
Mikulčice: Sídlo a pevnost knížat velkomoravských, Praha.
*Štefanovičová, Tatiana (1989).
Osudy starých Slovanov, Bratislava: Osveta.
*Wieczorek, Alfried and Hans-Martin Hinz (Hrsg.) (2000).
Europas Mitte um 1000, Stuttgart. ISBN 3-80621-545-6 or ISBN 3-80621-544-8
*
Detailed Timeline*
Reconstruction of a Great Moravian settlement 
