Alcsútdoboz Summary
Alcsútdoboz
Summary
Summary
The villages of Alcsút and Vértesdoboz were merged in the modern age under the name of Alcsútdoboz. Alcsút and its vicinity were inhabited since the Stone Age through the Roman times. Relics from the Bronze and Roman Ages were explored also in Göböljáráspuszta and the area of the chateau. The first charter data, known to us, goes back to 1365, when the noblemen of Alcsút confirmed that a part of the estate, leased by Fülöp Hasas, a citizen of Buda, belonged to the Trinitarians of Székesfehérvár. The people of the village were secular landowners living on demesnes since the XIV century. The first written record of Doboz (Vértesdoboz after 1903) is known from 1339.
After the occupation of Buda, and then Székesfehérvár, the inhabitants left their village only temporarily, and both villages were on the tax list of the Turks until 1590. In 1562, ten tax-paying families were recorded in Alcsút, and their number amounted to fifteen in 1590. In the last third of the XVI century, the noblemen of Alcsút raised their voice more than once against being forced to work as serfs by the commander of the Tata castle. Turkish rule caused a temporary decline in Doboz, as well. Its people lived in seven houses in 1580, and the members of the Dobozy family also paid tax to the frequently alternating Turkish landlords.
Both settlements became depopulated during the fifteen-year war (1591– 1606). Doboz, a noblemen’s waste was repopulated in the following decades, while Alcsút populated by the curial nobility and their servants.
Based on some misinterpreted data from a charter dated in the XIII century, the Order of St. Paul, reorganised in Pápa, in the county of Veszprém, announced their claim for the estate. A struggle lasting for more than a century was started in the middle of the XVIII century, which had the negative consequence for the inhabitants of the settlement that they sank to serfdom.
Doboz was reorganised in the first third of the XVII century. Its landowners were the Sajnovics and the Dobozy families. At the end of the XVIII century, the population of Alcsút came close to seven-hundred people, while 255 people were registered in Doboz.
The Calvinist religion connected most of the people living in the two villages. Until the church in Doboz was completed, the people of the village had visited the church in Alcsút, which had been maintained and renovated in 1784 with great care. The Calvinist church was built in Doboz between 1832 and 1835. Since that time, the adjacent villages became separated also from the point of view of the church. Doboz remained a village for the medium landowners. There were some contradictory processes going on in Alcsút, and the recognition of the curial nobility of its inhabitants was never raised again, not even after the dissolution of the Order of St. Paul (1786). The nobility settled in Alcsút farmed on serfs’ lands.
Alcsút was a state-owned estate managed by the ecclesiastical fund for more than three decades. Economic circumstances were only settled favourably after palatine József became the owner of the estate in 1819. King Ferenc I appointed archduke Antal József as the governor of Hungary in 1795. In 1796 he was elected palatine by the Hungarian parliament by acclamation. He performed this duty for fifty years until his death in 1847. His son, István succeeded him in his function as palatine, who also inherited the estate in Alcsút from his father.
Palatine József gained imperishable distinction in uplifting economic and cultural life in Hungary. He was the founder of the Hungarian line of the Hapsburg House. His chateau in Alcsút was built on the basis of Mihály Pollack’s plans between 1819 and 1827 (it was completely ruined in the 2nd World War, and only its columned portico has survived). The creation of the park around the palatine’s earlier resort chateau was started in 1825. The botanical garden was constructed in the style of an English garden. Its main ornaments are the giant plane trees, and the huge copper beeches. Its collection of pine-, lime- and sorb-trees is also notable.
The XIX century was the golden age of the settlement; its economic growth was not only due to the fact that also the Hungarian line of the Hapsburg dynasty had their chateau built here, but also to their well organised estate established here. The estate offered job opportunities, and the palatine and his successors continuously supported the village, and enriched it with public institutions, like a school, a kindergarten, a fire depot, and a poorhouse.
At the turn of the XIX and XX centuries, the population of Alcsút came close to one thousand seven hundred people, while there were four hundred and seventy people living in Doboz. Societies ensuring the root-organisation of the local society were established one after the other: fire-society, civil book club, tradesmen’s club, singing-circle, and farmers’ club.
The religious distribution of the population also showed differences. While there were basically Calvinists living in the village from the first quarter of the XVII century, it had an almost equal number of Calvinists and Catholics by the beginning of the XX century. The Roman Catholic church was built under the sponsorship of archduke Károly József in 1907. He gained fame and distinction in Hungarian scientific life. He published studies about the flora of his estate in Alcsút, and his plant-breeding experiences in Rijeka. He also obtained a high rank among European scientists by his scientific activity in the area of the Roma language and folklore. The first serious experiments for the solution of the Roma issue in Hungary could be brought in connection with his name.
His son, Ágost József archduke, who was one of the most successful generals of the 1st World War, played an important role at the time of the disintegration of the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy. He also proved to be the sponsor of the village, he supported the ecclesiastical schools, and the cultural and public educational societies.
Alcsút was a growing settlement between the two world wars (1918– 1939) in spite of the world crisis. Its population came close to one thousand eight hundred people. This could not be said about Vértesdoboz: its population was hardly more than four hundred persons. It could not retain its public administrative autonomy even with huge financial sacrifices. It was one notarial district with Alcsút in 1935. The central seat of the district was organised in Alcsút: this decision was an early indication of the merger, and unification of the two villages.
A stratum of farmers, becoming more and more self-conscious gained strength in the centre of the notarial district. They were farming in an area of 25-35 cadastral acres, and were an influencing factor in the intellectual image of the settlement. In addition, craftsmen and tradesmen played a significant role. The voluntary fire society, the tradesmen’s club and the singing-circle continued their activity, and a credit society, a consumers’ society and a dairy society were formed. Public education was organised by denomination: children were taught at the Calvinist, the Roman Catholic schools, and the elementary school in Göböljárás. The kindergarten and the Catholic girls’ school were managed by the Sisters of Mercy after 1882. The poorhouse, the Guards of the Heart, and the Heart of Jesus Girls’ Circle were established.
The village itself was the front-line of the war from December 23, 1944 until April 1945. It was occupied by the units of the Red Army on December 23. They stationed in Alcsút for almost four months, and consumed the animal stock, grain and food of the estate and the population. After December 23, 1944 the chateau and the chapel came up in flames, and the library and archives also burnt to ashes. The damages caused were inestimable. The demolition of the chateau, desolate for years, was started in 1951.
In the spring of 1945 parties and public bodies were formed one after another, and the distribution of land was started. Most of the estate was distributed, and a state farm was organised in Göböljáráspuszta.
Alcsút and Vértesdoboz merged in 1950, and carried the name of Váldoboz for months. The name of the merged settlement became Alcsútdoboz only on the request of the people of Alcsút. The years that followed were difficult, the communist dictatorship standardised and nationalised education, industry and trade, and later eliminated the freely operating stratum of farmers by creating a co-operative in 1848. Alcsútdoboz merged into the greyness of rural Hungary.
During the days of the 1956 revolution and freedom fight for the elimination of dictatorship, a national committee and civil guards were organised in the village. National freedom and self-determination evolved in the years of the political changes. Alcsútdoboz came round again, and today it is one of the dynamically developing villages in Fejér county.
