What is "ispan"

The ispán or count (, , and ) was the leader of a castle district (a fortress and the royal lands attached to it) in the Kingdom of Hungary from the early 11th century. Most of them were also heads of the basic administrative units of the kingdom, called counties, and from the 13th century the latter function became dominant. The ispáns were appointed and dismissed by either the monarchs or a high-ranking royal official responsible for the administration of a larger territorial unit within the kingdom. They fulfilled administrative, judicial and military functions in one or more counties.

Heads of counties were often represented locally by their deputies, the vice-ispáns (, and ) from the 13th century. Although the vice-ispáns took over more and more functions from their principals, the ispáns or rather, according to their new title, the lord-lieutenants of counties remained the leading officials of county administration. The heads of two counties, Pozsony and Temes were even included among the "barons of the realm", along with the palatine and other dignitaries. On the other hand, some of these high-ranking officials and some of the prelates were ex officio ispáns of certain counties, including Esztergom, Fehér and Pest until the 18th or 19th centuries. Between the middle of the 15th century and the 18th century, neither was unusual an other type of perpetual ispánate, namely the group of counties where the office of ispán was hereditary in noble families.

Election of the vice-ispáns by the assembly of the counties was enacted in 1723, although the noblemen could only choose among four candidates presented by the lord-lieutenant. Following the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, vice-ispáns officially took over the responsibility for the management of the whole county administration, but lord-lieutenants presided the most important representative or supervising bodies of the counties. Both offices were abolished with the introduction of the Soviet system of local administration in Hungary in 1950.

Ispán ("count") is the Hungarian title of a number of officials in the Kingdom of Hungary.

It may refer to:

• ispán, the head (usually appointed by the monarch) of a castle district (a fortress and the royal lands attached to it) or an administrative unit called county;
• the head of autonomous ethnic groups within the kingdom, including
  • the székelyispán or Count of the Székelys, the royal officials leading the Hungarian-speaking Székely community in Transylvania (now in Romania) in the Middle Ages,
  • the szebeni ispán or Count Hermannstadt ( Nagyszeben, Sibiu), the head of the Transylvanian Saxons between 1224 and 1324.