Abstract
This paper deals with military camps of Christian armies in the Central Europe between 1550-1650. It focuses on the camps of the Habsburg Monarchy and German lands, but some space is also given to the situation in Poland and Hungary.
The core of this study is the interpretation and comparison of treatises written by military theorists, who dealt with the problem of camps, namely of the works by Jan Tarnowski, Guillaume du Bellay, Leonhardt Fronsperger, Lazarus von Schwendi, Giorgio Basta and Johann Jacobi von Wallhausen. All of these military manuals were printed in the period of 1550-1650, in most cases in more than one edition.
Therefore we can say they were popular among contemporary officers and noblemen, whom they were usually designated to. The paper describes which places were considered suitable for setting up camps, how the camps were built and divided into smaller parts, and how the soldiers and the tross were accommodated.
Furthermore, the way the camps were fortified is being analysed, as well as the organization of patrols. The question of the provisioning and the role of the tross in the camps is also dealt with.