Pákozd Summary
Pákozd
Summary
Summary
The settlement that emerged along the road from Székesfehérvár to Buda on the Northern shore of lake Velence may boast a rich historical past. The scene of fateful battles affecting the history of the country (1593, 1848, 1944–1945) has been an inhabited place since the Bronze Age. From the earthwork surrounded by moats and fortifications, the one in Pákozd is one of the largest and most valuable in terms of its finds.
The name of the settlement first came up as “montem Pakoztu” in a work titled Gesta Hungarorum by Anonymus, who lived at the turn of the XI and XII centuries.
Its name probably emerged from a personal name given to it by the Hungarians, but the original personal name was of a Slavic origin (the ancient Polish Pakost). According to written sources, the place has been inhabited since the XIII century. Charters already mentioned a church and a vicarage in 1348. At that time the village was owned by the privileged chapter in Székesfehérvár.
After the occupation of Buda (1541) and Székesfehérvár (1543) by the Turks, the settlement shared the fate of other villages in Central-Hungary. The diminished population many times forced to flee had to serve two land-owners (a Turkish and a Hungarian) at the same time. The military operations recurring in the region of Székesfehérvár led to a situation whereby in the history of the settlement having shown an unbroken development until the middle of the XVI century, serious breaks happened every four or five decades threatening with an almost complete destruction.
The encounter known as the first Pákozd battle fought by the united European Christian troops in this region in the autumn of 1593 did not reach its goal of re-occupying Székesfehérvár from the Turks, but the combat waged in the field next to the village had serious consequences: the settlement remained depopulated for more than three decades. It was re-populated again only around 1625. At that time, the Jakusits family was the Hungarian land-owner of the village. After 1637, it became the estate of the Komárom residence of the Order of Jesuits.
Pákozd could get rid of all the burdens of its almost one hundred and fifty year existence under the Turkish Rule with the liberation of Székesfehérvár in 1688. The re-population and reconstruction of the village went in a quick pace. It was inhabited by fifty-two serf families in 1696. The number of the population – based on estimated data – came near to three-hundred people. The mostly Reformed population joined the Hungarian prince in the Rákóczi freedom fight fought for the independence of
the country (1703–1711). It was one of the centres of the Kuruts troops blockading Székesfehérvár.
The later decades of the XVIII century resulted in an economic upswing, its population was over a thousand one hundred people at the end of the century. There were some changes in the landowner’s person, too; the Order of Jesuits dispersed in 1773 was replaced by the re-organised chapter in Székesfehérvár in 1777.
Pákozd and its region played an outstanding role in the events of the revolution in 1848–1849, and the freedom fight fought in the hope of lifting the country’s dependence on Austria. The independent Hungarian army waged its first victorious battle against the Croatian-Austrian army led by Jellasics between Pákozd, Pátka and Sukoró. The Croatian-Austrian army deployed a troop of fifty thousand against the sixteen thousand soldiers of the Hungarian army. The protection of the independence of their homeland, and the achievements of the revolution multiplied the strength of the army. They defeated Jellasics forcing him into an armistice.
The population of Pákozd paid a severe price for the victory. They were helped not only be the surrounding villages, but also the chapter in Székesfehérvár and the population of the county. The chapter distributed corn, and the revolutionary committee of Fejér county carried out a collection campaign to help the population of the village.
The memory of the battle of Pákozd was not only preserved by the members of the army, but the population also commemorated the victory. The memory of the glorious days was conveyed from fathers to sons weaving legends out of reality. A commemorative column was erected in the downtown area of Pákozd for the soldiers fighting in the battle.
The monument erected on the Mészeg-hill on the Northern shore of lake Velence dates back to the beginning of the 1950-ies (1951). The two stone monuments “bridge over” decades: those of the first and the second world wars. From 1914 to 1918, more than four hundred people of the large village were recruited to military service. Out of them, seventy one lost their lives. Revolutions upset the normal life of the village from the autumn of 1918. In June 1919, an uprising broke out against the proletarian dictatorship. Imre Barna, a farmer was killed by the red commando.
A slow development evolved out of the political and economic crises from the middle of the 1930-ies. As early as in 1898, next to the suburban railway built from Székesfehérvár to Bicske, a regular bus service connected the settlement with villages Vereb, Pázmánd, Velence, Sukoró, Kápolnásnyék, and the town of Székesfehérvár. The farms of the middle peasantry gained strength, selling their crops produced on twenty-thirty holds to the local buyers, on the market in Székesfehérvár, and the country fairs. The basic tasks of education were carried out by schools maintained by the Catholic and Reformed parishes. The number of the population was 2833 between the two world wars, out of which 1521 were Catholic, and 1282 Reformed.
Pákozd survived some antagonistic decades after 1945. First, the distribution of land, and later with the strengthening of the democratic transformation, the multi-party system held out promises, which then was followed by the break up of private farming, local industry and trade, and the layer of small entrepreneurs. People migrated from the village in an increasing number, or commuted to other towns, and mostly the large companies in Székesfehérvár employed the workforce which had left the village. All this caused a stagnation in the number of the population. This process was further strengthened by the detachment of the earlier areas on the periphery of the settlement in the course of administrative re-organisation, and thus, Csalapuszta, Kisfalud, and Börgönd were annexed to Székesfehérvár.
The latest turn in the history of the village was the economic, political and spiritual liberation after the change of the political system. Quite a number of enterprises have emerged, tourism has been on the upswing, and the settlement has been elevated to the rank of a “capital” of lake Velence, and Velence-hill. Its national fame is not only fed by its monuments of 1848: but also the Don memorial chapel built on the Mészeg-hill devoted to the memory of the 2nd. Hungarian army perished on the Soviet front during the second world war in 1993.
