Thurzó family

Thurzó or Turzo (German; Hungarian: Thurzó; Slovak: Turzo; Polish: Turzonowie) was a Hungarian noble family from the 15th century to the first half of the 17th century. It was in Kraków (Cracow) that the rise of the Thurzó family began, and the family in turn boosted that city into an important center of business, science, and Renaissance high culture. The family's long-term involvement in capitalist enterprises, high-level politics, the affairs of the Church, and its patronage of the arts made the family rich, famous and powerful well beyond the city. Its achievements resembled the Medici family in Italy and France, perhaps the Fugger family in Germany. Key family patriarchs were Johann Thurzó (1437-1508) and his sons Johann (1466-1520), bishop of Breslau/Wroclaw, and Stanislaus (1471-1540), bishop of Olmütz/Olomouc. Karen Lambrecht argues that the family's most important role was in facilitating "intercultural communications." That is they used their vast network of friends, clients and allies to introduce new concepts in the arts, facilitate the exchange of ideas among scientists, and open contacts among different high status social groups.