after the castle of Buda had been retaken in 1686
Eger soon began to prosper again. The city was reclaimed by its bishops, which caused many local Protestants to leave. Although the city supported the Hungarian leader Prince Francis II Rákóczi in the 1703–1711 war of independence against the Habsburgs, the Hungarians were eventually defeated by the Imperial army. Soon after that, the city was ravaged by plague. However, immigration into Eger was strong, and the population rose from 6000 to 10,000 between 1725 and 1750. Many new buildings were built in Baroque and later in Rococo and Neoclassical style, including the cathedral, the Archiepiscopal Palace, the County Hall, the Lyceum (now housing the Eszterházy College of Education) and several churches, while others were reclaimed from being mosques.
The 19th century began with disasters: a fire that destroyed half the town in 1800, and a collapse of the south wall of the Castle in 1801, which ruined several houses. Eger became the seat of an archbishopric in 1804, and the church remained in firm control of the city, despite efforts by its citizens to obtain greater freedom. In 1827, much of the city centre was damaged by fire again, and four years later over 200 were killed in an outbreak of cholera.
The inhabitants of Eger took an active part in the revolution in 1848. Even though the revolution was suppressed, the age of landowners and serfs had gone forever, and the municipality gained freedom from the rule of the archbishop in 1854. However, the main railway line between Miskolc and Pest bypassed the city, which was only reached later by a branch line from Füzesabony.
Economic recovery was slow after World War I, although the 1899 publication of Gárdonyi's "Eclipse of the Crescent Moon" made Eger popular as a tourist attraction and archaeological excavation of the castle resumed. In World War II, the city suffered under the retreating German army and the arriving Soviet army,
