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The view of Eger from the tower of the University of Eger. What you can see is the Minorite Church (on the left), the Castle of Eger (in the middle) and Great Eged Hill in the distant bg.

The Castle of Eger was besieged two times by the Ottoman forces during the 16 th century. The first siege took place in 1552, when a relatively small garrison (approx. 2000, a major part of them was civilian, including women) in a more or less prepared castle repulsed 30x times bigger Ottoman forces (counting approx. 60 000 men). After the first siege the castle was upgraded significantly to better meet the requirements of the era and its garrison was increased in number. The second siege lasted very short, however: the garrison counting 7000 handed-over the castle for the Sultan, who had approx. 100 000 soldiers.

Why they handed-over the castle if their chances was better than the first time? Unlike, the first time, when the castle was protected by Hungarian forces, who fought to defend their own country, the second time the garrison was filled up with foreign mercenaries, who considered their lives more valuable than a castle of a foreign country. (Personally, their decision was understandable)

As the 'sagas' say, before the first siege started, the then captain of the castle István (Stephen) Dobó offered his soldiers to leave freely in case they have any doubts regarding success. (As he stated, he would rather go into battle with a dozen of wolves than with herd of sheep.) Whoever decided to stay was expected to fight until the end however. Even speaking of surrender was threatened with capital punishment. Some executions were actually carried for this reason. During the last assaults of the Ottomans even the women was ordered to fight on the walls, they were mostly throwing rocks and pouring hot water on the attacking soldiers. Lucky them, winter arrived early that year and the Ottomans, who already suffered from cholera, had to withdrawn as their army was not prepared for the cold.
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Cellphone image