Bikal Summary

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Bikal
Summary
The history of Bikal, hiding under the gentle slopes of the hills lying close to the border of Tolna county, on the north brim of Baranya, goes back to almost seven centuries, to the beginning of the 1330-ies.
Although contemporary sources preserved relatively few data about this medieval settlement and its inhabitants, however, we know much more about the landowners of this village, and the area (the Szente-Mágocs dynasty, the Treutel, Cseh and Országh families).
The Turkish occupants reached as far as the north side of the Mecsek mountain by the middle of the 1540-ies, and thus our area also got under their rule. The diminished people, living under the pressure of dual taxation for almost one and a half centuries, experienced the culmination of their inhuman plight during the so called liberation wars (1686–1687), when Bikal and its environs became almost fully depopulated. The deserted settlement was re-populated with Croatian and German settlers by the owners endowed with the area by the monarch (first the Rindsmaul, later – and mainly – the Petrovszky families). The settlers and their descendants introduced developed farming methods in the region, and especially tobacco growing was significant.
Owing to the generosity of Mihály Winkler, abbot-parson, the Catholic church of the village was consecrated to Saint Anne on July 26th, 1797. Another church, which belonged to one of the most significant evangelical communities of the neighbourhood, was built in the village in 1869.
Baron Antal Puchner, the new landowner of Bikal had his home built here at the end of the 1840-ies. After several reconstructions, the chateau gained its final late-historical style, still visible today. In the bourgeois era, in addition to the growth of both the settlement and its population, “its gradual shift to becoming German” was one of the most characteristic features of the village.
Railway tracks avoided the village, and this and the not too good transportation on public roads slightly hindered its development, and did not let it have a role in tourism or catering. The village traditionally and characteristically remained of an agricultural nature. However, its rank as a notarial centre, gave it a distinguished place among the settlements of the region.
The maintenance of the two denominational schools (Catholic and evangelical) proved to be of a decisive importance in the cultural life of the settlement. The functioning of the reading circle of Bikal (1903–1938) stands out from the relatively modest club life.
The 2nd World War took 75 victims in Bikal, who died during the fights, at the prison camps or work camps. The large-scale displacement of the German population was another severe cataclysm in the history of the village, in the course of which more than four hundred and forty villagers were forcefully removed to Germany in 1947–48. The place of the removed people was taken by Hungarian families re-settled from Slovakia, and some others that moved here from Zala county, and the area of Hódmezővásárhely.
The largely changed population of the village, and the new order fundamentally changed the ownership structure, as well. Soon after the repartition of land, co-operatives came into being, and in 1949 one of the most significant state farms of the region was established with its head office in Bikal. Since that time, the lives of the Bikal State Farm and the village became intertwined. The gradually developing large agricultural concern ensured growth for the people living here. Its fruit- and hop-growing, its fishery renowned in the country, as well as its rabbit breeding division were a source of prosperity for decades.
The change in the political system, and the gradual shrinkage of state subsidisation, led to the bankruptcy, and later liquidation of the state farm (1994). The village itself lived in a severe crisis, from which only viable small businesses could and can save the village.
These businesses are partly connected with the traditional agricultural-food industrial sphere, and partly with trading. The use of the Puchner-chateau as a hotel and a conference centre is a new initiative in this area. It gives a good chance to successful tourism with its thermal bath, created recently, and its beautiful and peaceful environment.

 

 

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