Kállósemjén Summary
Kállósemjén
Summary
Summary
The large village of Kállósemjén lies in the territory of an alluvial cone plain covered with half-bound wind-blown sand, loess, and loess-sand in the Central-Nyírség region. Its surface used to be covered by extensive forests, and those living here cut down some of the forests in the XVIII– XIX centuries to regain some area for the purposes of agricultural production. This region can be characterised by a moderately warm, cool and dry climate, and it is dominated by cold air coming from the North-East Carpathians in the winter. In the springtime, these winds do not only dry out the surface, but also induce some movements in it, causing significant damages to agriculture.
Nagy-Mohos, the nature conservation area of the settlement having a national significance, was formed by a strong sand-blow blocking the earlier river-valley. The oak trees establishing themselves on the sand-hills, and the ever- increasing lake created a micro-climate, cooler than in the surrounding areas. And it was nature again that cut though the lake with a sand-barrier, dividing it into a North and a South half. There were floating moors forming on the continuously filling up lakes with several plant rarities around them, like the Nephrodium thelypteris, the Menyanthes trifoliata, or the Caldesia parnassifolia. Due to the canal built in the 1980-ies, and the dry climate dominating at that time, water disappeared from the lakes, and the area turned into a moor land. An important task for the future is to restore this spoilt area, and to save the natural values.
According to some evidence provided by archaeological relics found in the area of this large village, it was populated almost at all times since the Neolithic age. The name of the village first appeared in the form of Semjén in 1271, when King Ladislas (the Kuman) IV. allowed Mihály, Ubul’s son to organise weekly fairs in this place every Thursday. The first known members of the Balogsemjén dynasty were Ubul, the father of the beneficiary of this donation, Egyed, his brother, who died during the military campaing at Halics in 1219, and Tompa, whose relation to them is unknown (ancestor of the Panyolai family). Their settlement in the Nyírség can be traced back to the times of the Hungarian Settlement (895).
The successors of Ubul’s son Mihály named themselves as Semjéni after the village in the XIV century, and later, changed this name to the Kállai after Nagykálló, another part of their estate lying in the vicinity. Their history took an upward turn around the end of the ruling of Ladislas (the Kuman) IV., they were almost the masters of the whole Eastern part of the country. After the death of the king, however, they had to escape, and some of them ran to Poland. They could only take back their estates during the ruling of King Charles Robert (1317). Until the disaster at Mohács (1526), they took part in almost all foreign military campaigns of their sovereigns, thus adding to their estates and wealth. They also obtained the privilege to have absolute right of justice over their serfs, while it was only the King, the Palatine and the Lord Chief Justice that could administer justice over the members of the family.
At the beginning of the XIV century, Semjén already consisted of two parts: the first was the village of Egyházassemjén owned by the Panyolai family, and the second was the village of Nagysemjén owned by the Semjéni family, although the two were only separated by a street. In the first one, there was a vicarage consecrated to Saint Nicolas, and the latter one had the Virgin Mary Chapel, subordinated to the former one, which caused constant debates between the landlords.
The two parts of the village were merged in 1427, when the Panyolai family died out. It was already an oppidum in 1471, with a mayor, and
a common jury at the top of it. This was the time when it was first mentioned in writing as Kállósemjén, its present name. Probably, it was in the time of King Matthias I. (1458-90), when the dynasty received its coat-of-arms reflecting their participation in military campaigns against the Turks, and when its slogan was born: “In asperis et prosperis”, that is “In misfortune and in fortune”.
By the middle of the XVI century, the seventh settlement of the county went down to the twelfth place, and declined even further due to the Turkish rule. Although the border castle of Kálló, built nearby on their estate could still keep the Turks away, but it could not provide protection against the damages caused in the village by the unpaid and always hungry Hungarian and German soldiers in the castle. The landlord had to escape to his far-away estates in Szatmár county, and the serfs also hid away from the constant persecution.
The Kállay family came back to Semjén only after the Turks were expelled (1689), and with them the earlier serfs sneaked home. This, however, did not provide a sufficient number of hands to cultivate the land, and therefore, mainly Hungarian and Rumanian settlers were brought from Szatmár, but also Slovakians from Upper-Hungary. They, partly using the medieval church ruins, created the religious conditions in Kállósemjén, still applying today: the Greek Catholic, the Reformed, and the Roman Catholic religions. There are two sources – a Charter specifying the serfs’ commitments to their lords in 1772, and the fire damage insurance documents in 1844 – that provide valuable information about the land ownership structure in the village, its land cultivation lines, the landlords’ and the serfs’ houses, and their farm buildings.
The authors of this book give detailed information about the life of Kállósemjén between 1849 and 1990. Miklós Kállay’s role is highlighted as Lord Lieutenant, Minister of Agriculture (1932-35), and as prime minister later (1942-44). He built out a model farm (Forrástanya) to try to set an example to the landlords and peasants of the area. During the Second World War, the village and its surroundings became the military scene
of the fights between the German-Hungarian and the Soviet-Rumanian troops. This badly afflicted the civil population, as well, both personally and financially. Most of the displaced Jewish population died in Auschwitz.
The book describes the reconstructed history of all the three religious congregations and their churches based on the available historic sources, also referring to a statement that “there is interdenominational concord in the village”. It also gives a detailed description of the past history of
the denominational schools of the village until the times when the eight-class school was established (1942), and the church and secular elementary schools were merged and nationalised (1948), introducing the prominent teachers working here.
Three manor-houses or country-houses have survived all the hardships in the village up till our days. The Kállay-manor was the first to be built (in the last one third of the XVIII century). This was also the summer residence of the prime minister’s family. It was transformed in 1964 for the purposes of a rural student-home, and it is empty today. The Wolkenstein manor-house met the same fate after it had been converted to a barn. The third manor-house was owned by the Gyulaházi family of a Jewish origin until 1944, and today it is the site of the psychiatric hospital in Nagykálló.
The last chapter of the book deals with the folk architecture of the village. The described houses – reflecting the living conditions of the rural population before the First World War and between the two World Wars – have been pulled down by now. The only saved house used to be at No. 48. Str. Vasvári Pál, and in 1982 it was moved to the Sóstó Museum in Nyíregyháza.
The Appendix of the book contains the name list of the leaders of Kállósemjén between 1866 and 1950, their positions, and period of mandate, as well as the name list of the heroic dead of Kállósemjén, who died fighting the Second World War or in the German death camps.
