of the Temes, the Bega, was the seat of the ispán, or head of Temes County. In 1241 the city was destroyed during the Mongol invasion of Hungary and Poland, but the walls were rebuilt. Charles I of Hungary took up his residence in Temesvár in 1315, because a dozen powerful lords who had refused to yield to him controlled large territories in other parts of Hungary. In the next years, a royal castle was erected near the old fortress and the latter was rebuilt with stone. According to Petrovics, the church dedicated to Saint Eligius implies that Italian artisans settled in the town during this period, because the saint was primarily venerated in Naples. The Dominicans settled in the town before Csanád Telegdi was consecrated bishop in their local church in early 1323. After Charles I restored royal authority, he transferred his court from Temesvár to the centrally-located Visegrád in the summer of 1323. The "guest settlers" in the town (hospites de Themeswar) were first mentioned in 1341, the burghers of Timișoara (cives de Temeswar) in 1342. The ethnicity of the citizens was rarely mentioned, but their names suggest that most "guest settlers" and burghers were Hungarians. Records of citizens who moved from Șemlacu Mare, Maráz and other nearby villages to Temesvár prove that it had developed into an important regional center. Merchants from Ragusa (now Dubrovnik in Croatia) settled in the town around 1402. Bulgarians, Romanians and Serbians also moved to the town in the . For instance, the name of Johannes Olaah ("John the Vlach"), who was a burgher of Temesvár in 1539, suggests that he was of Romanian origin. By the middle of the 14th century, Temesvár was at the forefront of Western Christendom's battle against the Muslim Ottoman Turks. French and Hungarian crusaders met at the city before engaging in the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396. Beginning in 1443, John Hunyadi used Temesvár as a military stronghold against the Turks, having built a powerful fortress. The city was repeatedly sieged by the Ottomans in 1462, 1476, 1491, and 1522. In 1514 the largest peasants' revolt in Hungarian history was defeated in a battle near Temesvár and its Székely leader György Dózsa was tortured and executed. Ottoman Rule Because of Temesvár's strategic location, the Ottomans desired to capture the fortress during their campaigns against the Kingdom of Hungary. Although the Hungarians suffered a devastating loss at