Medieval Danube island monasteries: flood resilience, mitigation, prevention and adaption in the Middle Danube region

Monastic communities of western (Benedictine) and eastern (Bazilite) origin emerged in medieval Hungary latest in the 11th century and were joined by other orders in later centuries, representing all major branches of monasticism. Island monasteries connected to major rivers (e.g. the Danube) or lakes (e.g. Balaton) appeared as characteristic monastic landscapes from the first period of monastic culture in Hungary. A significant number of monasteries, representing a great variety of orders, were established on small islands of the Middle Danube, many being connected to royal centres (e.g. Esztergom, Visegrád, Buda). As well as the documentary and archaeological evidence concerning island monasteries, similar evidence of the most important flood-rich periods and some major Danube floods are also available from the early 13th century onwards. Seasonal/annual documentary flood data can be reconstructed from the early 15th century to the end of the 16th century. The relationship between the Danube floods and island monasteries, flood resilience, mitigation, prevention strategies and their improvements are studied in more detail through the examples of five Danube monasteries. Particularly detectable since the late 13th century, major building periods and occasional abandonments often coincided with flood-rich periods or followed great or extraordinary Danube floods, and occurred during dearth years or periods of monastic crisis. Because of improved flood prevention measures, even if occasionally beset with financial difficulties, most of the small Danube island monasteries showed high flood resilience and survived until the end of the Middle Ages. In the poster presentation, we provide an overview of the detectable flood mitigation and prevention practices and their potential implications in modern flood prevention measures.