Fictional Siege of Graz by King Béla IV of Hungary in 1260 Anonymous, 1868

The Imagined City

In this historicizing graphic print from the 19th century, Graz appears as a make-believe product in two ways. On the one hand, it shows the time around 1254, when Styria passed to Béla IV, King of Hungary, in the struggle for the legacy of the last Duke of the House of Babenberg, Frederick II (†1246). But only as late as in the 16th century, the city wall reached the dimensions shown in this picture. On the other, the artist turned Graz into the location of a siege by Béla IV that had never happened. The latter had to surrender Styria to Ottokar II of Bohemia after a defeat in 1260.