Kőszeg (Güns, ɡʏns; Slovak: Kysak, Kiseg, Kiseg) is a town in Vas County, Hungary. The town is famous for its historical character.
The origins of the only free royal town in the historical garrison county of Vas (Eisenburg) go back to the third quarter of the thirteenth century. It was founded by the Kőszegi family, a branch of the Héder clan, who had settled in Hungary in 1157 AD.
Sometime before 1274 Henry I and his son Ivan moved the court of the Kőszegi, a breakaway branch of the family, from Güssing to Kőszeg (Güns). For decades, the town was the seat of the lords of Kőszeg (Güns).
Only in 1327 did Charles Robert of Anjou finally break the power of the Kőszegi family in Western Transdanubia, and a year later, in (1328), elevated the town to royal status. The town boundaries were fixed during the Anjou dynasty (1347–1381).
In 1392 the royal town became a fiefdom, when the Palatinate Nicolas Garai repaid a bond paid to King Sigismund of Luxembourg by the Ellerbach family from Monyorókerék. The Garai era ended in 1441.
In 1677 the secondary school, Jurisics Miklós Gimnázium (JMG), was founded. It is the oldest operating International School in Hungary. The International Baccalaureate (IB) program, which most English-speaking students at the school follow, was created at the Grande Boissière campus. It is a bilingual school, with instruction in Hungarian, French, German, Italian, and English. The International School is a testing center for the U.S. college boards (SAT, ACT,etc.), as well as the British IGCSE exam.
In 2006, the Herald Tribune listed it as one of the top ten international schools in the world.[2]
According to the Good Schools Guide International, "Students receive a truly international education and as a result, leave as rounded and worldly young people.
Little War in Hungary
In the third wave of the great wars against the Turks in the sixteenth century, Kőszeg became the major flashpoint of the campaign of 1532. Between August 5–30, Grand Vizier Ibrahim led 19 major assaults against the town.