Szabadkígyós – Újkígyós Summary
Szabadkígyós – Újkígyós
Summary
Summary
The two settlements can be found on the puszta of Kígyós extending over the Western vicinity of Békéscsaba. This huge plain of loess and sand is varied at places with salt marshes. Therefore, in addition to land cultivation, animal grazing is still the most important branch of the economy here. The Körös-Maros National park has been supervising over the preservation of the flora and fauna of the region since 1977. A neo-renaissance manor-house of the Wenckheim family, designed by Miklós Ybl and built between 1874 and 1879 can be found on this puszta, the French and English parks of which are part of the protected area.
Archaeologists found relics of ancient burials with horses in the tombs from the time of the Hungarian settlement, explored on this puszta. After the Hungarian settlement, and the formation of the state, the Gyula tribe, and later the Vata dynasty lived in this area. During the Middle Ages there were several small villages here. The village of Kígyós was first mentioned in 1398.
The puszta, which also covers the area of the settlements that were destroyed during the times of the Turkish rule, was donated to the Harruckern family in 1723. After the extinction of the family’s male line, the puszta was inherited on the female line, and got into the ownership of the Wenckheim family. In 1814, Count József Antal Wenckheim established a plantation of tobacco of Szeged origin here next to his estate founded at the beginning of the XIX century.
During the Napoleonic wars, Europe could not have access to American tobacco, therefore, the production of tobacco became a rather profitable activity on the whole of the old continent, and therefore, in Hungary, also. In our country, first, the treasury started to produce tobacco in its own puszta areas, and later private landowners on their own allodiums. This task was mostly performed by the tobacco growers of Szeged, who were familiar with the traditional methods of Turkish horticulture. They worked on the leaser’s land for a certain percentage of the produced tobacco, and later for cash.
The count made lease-hold contracts for forty years with the tobacco-growing families moved to the puszta of Kígyós. The lessees had to grow tobacco on a land of five hundred jugerums, and in exchange for the lease they delivered more than an annual fifty tons of tobacco to the warehouse of the estate. Pursuant to the lease contract, the settlers also received a piece of arable land next to the tobacco field.
In case if the conditions of the contract were not fulfilled, the landowner could terminate the contract, and the lessees had to move away. So that this does not happen, the community implemented an administration in the village, which was not standard practice at the time. The village rules approved by the estate in 1842, set out the duties of the farming families in relation to tobacco growing, but they also meticulously provided for marking clerical, family and community holidays. Between 1842 and 1848, the gathering of the elderly of the population consisting of the high-ranking farmers of the village under the chairmanship of the vicar supervised the fulfilment of rules and contractual commitments.
In 1848, the horticultural village together with its landlord made a generous contribution to assist the home-country. The village gave its men to be recruited as voluntary national guards and soldiers, and later, its national guards also participated in the popular rising.
A new contract was drawn up in 1853 for an additional thirty years. After its expiry, Act XII / 1873 made the redemption of leased lands possible. The horticultural farmers of Kígyós concluded the contract on the redemption with Krisztina Wenckheim on 9th. September 1884. The village took out a long-term loan to pay off the necessary amount, which they managed to pay back by 1906. Among the horticulturists, who made the contract with equal conditions in the beginning, many could not regularly pay the instalments, and their lands were transferred to those who their guarantors.
During the first world war, the men of Újkígyós served in the 101st. infantry, out of whom 101 fell on the front. The village celebrated its one hundred year anniversary during the war.
During the Horthy period, several families obtained land, and the village obtained pasture in the framework of the land reform by Nagyatádi. After the distribution of plots of land in 1921, Újfalu (New Village), and the later Saint Emeric estate became populated, and a school was built here, as well. The twenties witnessed the establishment of the Citizens’ Reading Circle, and the Society of Voluntary Firemen. The village received a new cinema in 1939. The home for young soldiers equipped with a theatre hall was built in 1942.
During the second world war, ninety eight soldiers from Újkígyós (New Kígyós) lost their lives, and four families fell victim to the holocaust.
The Soviet troops marched in Újkígyós on the 6th. October 1944. There was a production committee managing the cultivation of the land of the previous estate, now left without a master. The several wagons of sugar, received in exchange for the sugar-beet grown here, became a good basis for exchange in the inflationary world. During the land reform of 1945, 953 families received allotments from the land of the estate, and 444 claimants received housing plots in Újkígyós, the later Szabadkígyós (Free Kígyós). The organisation of co-operative groups started in 1948.
The village council was established in Újkígyós, as well, in the autumn of 1950, with its first president, István Szujó. After the revolution of 1956, following the hard dictatorship of the fifties, the settlement started a slow development in the 1960-ies. In 1958, two hundred and twenty new housing plots were established by distributing the manors, which had large sizes until then. By 1960, Újkígyós also became a co-operative settlement, and the image of the village started to transform. There was development also in its infrastructure. The land-owning co-operative, which also controlled sales, and the Cover Plate Factory of the General Consumption and Sales Co-operative, into which it transformed, survived the previous decades and is still operating under the name of Akvaline Ltd.
Újkígyós received the rank of a large village in 1970, and between 1977 and 1990 it formed a common large village council with Szabadkígyós. In the 1990-ies, the shops of the bankrupt co-operative became privatised, and the co-operative itself was split into several smaller business units. Several families are farming now as private farmers on its land given to them after a compensation movement.
The people of the settlement, as is shown in the works by Sándor Bálint, a folk researcher of the village, is the carrier of the Szeged cultural heritage. The true stories, legends, and ballads published by András Krupa are our irreplaceable intellectual treasures.
The life and every days of the population were dominated by the duties of tobacco growing, which demanded a high level of skills and persistent work. The building of the manor and the house, as well as the intellectual property all provide evidence about this investment.
The catholic faith also played an important role in the life of Újkígyós. The first small church was built with the help of the landlord in 1820, and later, the present church in the 1850-ies, after the death of József Antal Wenckheim. The expansion of church institutions – after a forced interval of about fifty years – is still continued in our days. The Saint Elisabeth home for elderly people was built after the political changes, and that is when the Ipolyi Arnold people’s academy started its operation.
Szabadkígyós, the twin village of Újkígyós, became an independent village from the Wenckheim family’s estate in Ókígyós (Old Kígyós) in January 1950. József Antal Wenckheim, having built a manor house in the centre of his estate, made use of his huge allodium by the establishment of further leases to add to the lease established with the horticulturists in Újkígyós. According to the 1831 inventory of the estate, he even hired lessees for the pastures. The traditions of modern farming methods used on his estate were continued by Krisztina Wenckheim and her husband, Frigyes Wenckheim. The still existing grand neo-renaissance style manor house in Ókígyós was built on their initiative between 1874 and 1879.
After the second world war, the manor house was occupied by the agricultural grammar-school of Békéscsaba, saving it from complete destruction. This complex of buildings still hosts an agricultural vocational school. The park of the manor house has been under protection since 1954, and since 1977, the puszta of Kígyós comprising the park of the manor house and the habitats of several rare species of plants and animals was transformed into a nature protection area, which has become part of the Körös-Maros Natural Park since 1977. The manor house, and next to it the monument barn designed by Miklós Ybl, the Saint Anna chapel built in 1844, and the Wenckheim crypt are the precious monuments of the village. The park of the manor house is also a favourite place of excursion. Since the change of the political system, the catholic church consecrated to Saint Joseph was also completed in Szabadkígyós.
Today, the settlement is already maintaining its connection with its former owners, within the framework of the Wenckheim world meetings.
