Andocs Summary

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Andocs
Summary
The valley of Koppány is one of the most beautiful areas among the wonderful hilly landscapes of the Outer-Somogy-hills. Andocs is standing at the North gate of this place, rich in superstitions and traditions People tried to interpret its name in several ways in different times. There were some who thought that the name derived from the German word “andach”, devotion, and others derived it from the Turkish “anmak”, bequeath. The most accepted view is that the name of the small settlement preserved the diminutive form of the name of András (Andrew).
According to the witness of the sporadic archaeological relics explored in the vicinity of the settlement, probably even Neolithic man settled in this region. In the VII–VIII centuries A.D., probably one of the military type settlements of the Avar people stood here, who dominated the Carpathian basin at that time, which is also proven by two graveyards explored in 1962.
The area of the village today was shared by several settlements before the Turkish occupation in the XVI–XVII centuries. The earlier Nemes-Adocs (Noble-Adocs) was inhabited by several noble families in the XI–XIV centuries. The earliest known landowning family was the Óvári-Kémedi line of the Győr dynasty. They were followed by the Andochi family. The family, which also obtained the position of sub-prefect of the county in the XV century, did not any more rule over the settlement on its own at the beginning of the XVI century, but together with the Uzdy and Ispán families. At the same time, two other members of the Andocs family were also mentioned quite often in the charters of the time. In Kápolnás- and Egyházas-Andocs (Andocs-with-a-Chapel and Andocs-with-a-church) the Carthusian order, and the order of St. Paul obtained some estates, and their members introduced flourishing farms and herb production in these fields. Also the members of the order of St. Paul owned the nearby Nagy-Toldipuszta (Large-Toldi puszta), which is one of the outskirt areas of the village today. During the Turkish rule, the population was radically diminishing, and Egyházas- and Kápolnás-Andocs got fully depopulated. Those who survived the years of the war, and did not escape from the village had to face up to an extremely difficult century. When, in 1643, János Horváth, a Jesuit Father arrived in Andocs as a missionary, he found mainly Slav settlers apart from the scarce Hungarian population in the Koppány area. The religious composition of the village also changed. The Koppány valley people, who had been strongly Catholic before due to the monks, was almost fully converted to the Calvinist faith, which was extremely popular in the areas ruled by the Turks. Although Horváth’s missionary activities yielded success, no records have come down, however, whether the local people did not go back to their earlier faith after he had left. In any ways, after the Turks were expelled, the landlord of the Andocs, which was at last unified as one settlement, became the bishop of Veszprém. This was a guarantee that the Catholic faith would be the ruling religion in the village, which had an extremely low population. This mainly became obvious after bishop Ottó Volkra established a Franciscan monastery, and had a rich baroque church built in the village. Monks had much more to do in Andocs than just give spiritual nourishment. They became the safe-guards and advocates of the Cult of Mary in Andocs, which according to some, were created back at the time of the Jesuit missionary brethren.
According to one of the numerous versions of the legend, the Mary of Andocs was carved by Joseph, the carpenter, thus portraying his spouse, the mother of Jesus Christ. The wooden statue is considered by art historians to be an artifact from the XIII-XV centuries, which probably from as early as the XVII century, but surely from the XVII century, was revered as a wonder-working statue. Legend has it that the statue of Mary found its way to Andocs in an adventurous way. Allegedly, in the 1550-ies, in Kalocsa, which was occupied by the Turks, a Calvinist peasant hid his cattle in the nearby Catholic church to rescue them from a large storm, and tied the animals to the altar. The Lord grew angry because of this, and amidst a huge roll of thunder, two of his angels lifted the whole chapel, flew it over the Danube, and placed it on the ground in Andocs. The village became a significant object of pilgrimage in the XVIII century.
Several people from the active local players of the 1848-49 revolution and freedom fight were imprisoned or taken for military service.
After the Hungarian-Austrian settlement of 1867, the village started a slow development. This growth provided better living conditions for only few people initially. The possibility was given only to few on the poor quality land of Andocs to become rich, and to progress to the level of wealthier peasant landowners. The estate of the bishop, which took up most of the land area in the village, was leased out in the capitalising world, and the offspring of the earlier cotters and poorer serfs mostly became wage-labourers or servants on the estate. No wonder that many emigrated to America at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. Most of these people, however, returned back home, they could not take root in the new world. For many of them, the money collected on the other side of the ocean, provided a financial foundation to give a better life for their offspring. Probably the most famous person who visited America was Mihály Porkoláb, who made soda factories from the money he earned in the New world.
The gradual development after 1867 was only slowed down by the first World War, but it was not stopped by it. What is more, the financial and human capital, accumulated in the time of Dualism, could really yield an interest only between the two world wars. Between 1920 and 1941, new shops, a consumer co-operative, and a grazing society were formed in the village. Corn was ground by a gas operated mill rather than the earlier water mills, and it happened more and more frequently that two or three peasant farmers purchased a threshing machine or a tractors jointly. In the fever of reconstruction after the second World War, electric lighting was installed, a village house was built, and there was a cinema to entertain the local people on week-ends. The Stalinist management of agriculture between 1949 and 1956, however, broke the spirit on free wings after 1945, and even led the village to a situation with shortage of bread. During the good thirty years associated with the name of János Kádár after the revolution of 1956, however, the level of existence of the population of Andocs also improved a lot, similarly to other villages of the country, and such means of modern life technology as refrigerators, television or cars became accessible for those living here.
The number of people who read newspapers also grew in the 1960-ies. This was the last finishing touch on the primary-level education of the people of Andocs, for which village teachers had fought so much since the middle of the XVIII century.
The educational level of those who became more prosperous financially speaking from the second half of the XIX century, made it possible already in 1894 to create the Tradesman’s Reading Circle in Andocs, which could be considered as the first local non-governmental organisation. The organisation of the local tradesmen at this time already had a past of a hundred years. It can be proven that there was a mixed business guild already in 1799. In addition to this, there may have been a large number of tradesmen, apart from the guild members, living in the village at the time, because in 1807, when the number of the guild members was five persons officially, the registry for the county counted 43 tradesmen in the village, which at that time had about one thousand and two hundred inhabitants. The population of the settlement often changed in time, but it basically preserved its national composition. We can consider the end of the XVII century to be the demographic nadir of the settlement, when altogether nine households that is a population of less than 100 were found in the village devastated by the armies. From a demographic point of view, the most successful period was the first decade of the 1900-ies, when in Andocs with a population of 1714 at the time, the proportion of the people between 20-59 was forty percent, and that of those over sixty was ten percent. In the village, which had always been Hungarian, after the re-occupying wars, there was no trace left of the Slavic population, which had probably lived here during the Turkish times, while the gipsies, who had probably settled here during the XVIII century, enriched the traditions of Andocs with their unique trades and their special annual “Gipsy feast”.

 

 

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