Csákvár Summary
Csákvár
Summary
Summary
Csákvár is famous for the fossils of ancient animals of the Báróczházy cave hidden among the rocks closing the western edge of the village. The ruins of the Roman Floriana, called the Castle Hill in colloquial language, can be found around the Reformed church in the western part of the village, and the castle of the Csák dynasty, also in the name of the village, might have been also here in the early Arpadian age.
Anonymus, the first Hungarian “story teller”, a medieval chronicler, who described the Hungarian settlement in the form of a romantic gesta, was the first to write about Csákvár: chieftain Árpád gave a forest East of the Bodok mountain to Előd, the father of Szabolcs. This forest is the Vértes now. Much later, Csák, the grandson of Szabolcs erected a castle next to the Fertő-marsh (Velence lake) under this forest. Simon Kézai, another Hungarian chronicler located the ancient pre-settlement dwelling place of the Csák dynasty, the off-spring of Szabolcs, in the region around Csákvár in Fejér county.
The earliest occurrences of the name of the village: Sac castrum, Chakwara (1283), Chaak-Vara (1473). It was already a fair-holding place in the XV century. Lajos II. donated it together with the castle of Gesztes to Imre Török in 1519. The Turkish army occupied and devastated Csákvár and its neighbourhood in 1543.
From almost one century later, from the first quarter of the XVII century, the continuous presence of its population could be proven. In 1635 two estates, and in 1650 five estates were recorded.
When the liberation war against the Turks was started in 1683, its population left the village and escaped to Tata. It was only re-populated in 1688, when Székesfehérvár was re-captured. It was mostly the families that had fled to Tata, and those that came from the Esterházy estates who re-settled in the village.
There were 26 families living in it in 1696, 81 families in 1715, and already 335 families after the middle of the XVIII century. Its population was over two thousand two hundred people. It became a borough in 1792, and the fact that it won the right to organise fairs further strengthened the stratum of industrialists and traders. The data of the turn of the century prove that its famous pottery industry stood out in local craftsmanship.
After the wedding of Miklós Esterházy with Krisztina Nyári (1624), the history of the settlement was connected with that of the Esterházy family for more than three centuries. They did not only populate the village, but they also enriched the settlement with significant monuments. The Esterházy chateau was originally built by János Esterházy in a baroque style. Its Doric chapel wing with four columns and a theatre was designed by Jakab Fellner. It was reconstructed several times between 1781 and 1823, when it received its present Classicist form.
The Roman Catholic church with its two towers was built by Ferenc Esterházy in 1748 based on the designs made by Leonard Helbersdorfer. It was reconstructed after the 1760-ies under the management of Jakab Fellner, and later, in the middle of the XIX century, Miklós Esterházy had it extended, probably based on the plans prepared by Miklós Ybl.
The Esterházy family had a pharmacy established in the village in 1821, and a manorial hospital in 1832. Móric Esterházy, and his off-spring, Móric Miklós established and supported a nunnery, a poorhouse, an economic institute, and a Catholic circle. It gave home for the Sisters of Mercy in 1883. The nunnery hosted a kindergarten, a girls’ school, a hospital, a poorhouse and an orphanage.
In the administrative structure of the bourgeois era Csákvár received the status of a large village, which meant that it had the autonomy to solve tasks related to primary level public administration. It was the seat of a parliamentary constituency from 1848 to 1910, with most of its citizens supporting the national, independence oriented politics for several decades. The local community became active in self-organisation after the compromise of 1867. The relief society was established in 1872, the mutual industrial society in 1873, the fire society in 1878, the Catholic young men’s club in 1891, the Catholic club in 1895, the civil readers’ club in 1896, the social club in 1903, and the farmers’ club in 1918. The estate established an economic school in the village in 1891. The population of Csákvár was almost five thousand people at the turn of the XIX–XX centuries.
The 1st World War brought about a serious crisis: there were 638 people fighting in the front-lines, 208 out of whom sacrificed their lives for their homeland. The number of war widows was almost fifty, and the number of war orphans was more than thirty.
There was no land distribution during the bourgeois democratic revolution after the 1st World War. Co-operatives were established on the estate in the period of the bourgeois dictatorship, and the Soviet type dictatorship questioned even the autonomy of industry, trade and peasants’ farms. The bourgeois consolidation, started from the beginning of August 1919, became consolidated amongst severe economic difficulties. The Hangya Consumption and Sales Co-operative came into being, and several cultural and public educational societies were formed.
The 2nd World War again brought a serious break in the economic, educational and church life of Csákvár. There were grave fights waged in the region from December 1944 until the middle of March 1945. It was here that the last corps of cavalrymen of the Hungarian Royal Army were dispersed after heroic struggles.
The Soviet type dictatorship built after 1948 eliminated the democratic parties operating in the village. Farmers were forced into co-operatives, and state farms were created from the Esterházy estate.
The renaissance of Csákvár was started after the change of the political system. The monument of the heroes was inaugurated in 1990: it was to commemorate the heroes and victims of 1848–49, 1914–1918, 1941–45 and 1956. In 2001, the village commemorated the hussars who fell in the world war, and a new village hall was built in the very same year. The number of the population in Csákvár is 5159, and the number of businesses is 301. The village is close to a successful application for the rank of a town.
