castle at Moson, and thus turned to Óvár as a promising site for a future fortress. The King gave a man named Conrad, who was of the Győr tribe, lands in Moson and funds to be able to accomplish this task. Though he made significant improvements to the castle, he defected to Ottokar II and Duke Albert of Austria. For this impunity, he was deprived of his lands, and from then on Óvár was an estate of the Hungarian queens. The first settlers to Óvár were refugees from the destroyed Moson, and in the 14th century it became a bustling city with new industry and urbanization. Mills along the Lajta became a source of employment and attention, as many were owned by the royal house. In 1354, Queen Elisabeth gave Óvár the title of "queen's town". This gave the townspeople the right to elect their own parish priest, have their own jurisdiction, inherit possessions, and pay no customs in all of Hungary. Later kings recognized these rights, but the townspeople still had to struggle to maintain them. After Louis II's marriage to Mary of Habsburg, Óvár became a key defense on the Austrian border, which would come into play during the Turkish invasion.
In 1529, after the Turks were repulsed at the Siege of Vienna, they destroyed Óvár almost completely, leveling all of its Medieval buildings, including the castle and the Romanesque church. The armies of János Szapolyai and the Archduke Ferdinand also sacked the town. However, once again the inhabitants went about rebuilding it. During the Reformation, the town was almost completely converted to Lutheranism, and the famous preacher Huszár Gal opened a Lutheran school at Magyaróvár in 1555. Counter reformative movements forbade Protestantism in 1672, closing down the school and the Lutheran church. Due to the lax nature of the new statutes, and the rights of the townspeople as enforced by Ferdinand and Archduke Maximilian, however, religion did not become compulsory. During this time, Moson and Óvár alike
