Egyházashetye Summary
Egyházashetye
Summary
Summary
Egyházashetye and its surroundings have been populated ever since prehistoric times. This is suggested by the archaeological findings of the adjacent Ság-hill or the relics from the Roman age of the nearby Mesteri (Mestriana). Kemenesalja, the region is bordering on the river Rába in the North, the Marcal valley in the South, and surrounded by Kemeneshát region and the Vas-Zala hills in the South, continuing in the Kemeneshát region in the West and South-West. Béla Hamvas wrote this about it: “this is the only place in the whole country where one will know that life is only high-class if it is artistic”. This region gave an outstandingly high number of geniuses to Hungarian literature from Dániel Berzsenyi, who was born in Hetye, to Sándor Weöres from Csönge.
This village is a noble village in its ancient character: initially it belonged to the castle governor of Karakó, and later it was mentioned as the property of Sándor Köcsky, bailiff from the Héder dynasty. In the XV century, it got to the ownership of the Bekeny and Choron families, and later of the Gotthard family from Herény by way of inheritance. As a result of the relation to the Gotthards from Herény, almost three quarters of the estates in the village fell into the hands of the Nagy family from Felsőbük in the XIX century. The Hrabovszky, Thulman, Bodák, and later the Berzsenyi, Barcza, and Tompos families were part of the nobility owning smaller estates. From the noble families, the descendants of the Szita, Hetyey and Vargyai families still live here.
Agriculture has been the main source of income for the population of the village for many centuries until today. The Herény Gotthard estate, later Felsőbük Nagy estate was dominating. Next to it, there were small estates owned by the nobility, and serfs’ lands. The village is still surrounded by neatly farmed, good quality arable lands. In addition to agriculture, viniculture and wine-growing played a major role in the life of the village: for centuries there have been owners from Hetye in great numbers having vineyards on the Small-Somlyó hillside, which belongs to the wine region of Somlyó. Earlier, there was significant wine-growing on the Bekenyi hillside, as well: the Nagy family from Felsőbük had the largest estate here, too.
Railway construction avoided the village, its nearest station can be found six kilometres from here, in the neighbouring Boba. There have been postal and telephone services since 1930, and electricity reached Egyházashetye almost half a century ago, in 1952. There have been scheduled buses to Celldömölk and Jánosháza since 1958. The people living here can use good quality water from the tap for more than two decades.
The religious setup of the village has undergone an interesting process of changes: the Catholic population became evangelical after the Mohács Disaster, and later – due to the Gotthard family from Herény, who became the owners – the Catholics started to dominate again. In addition to the infants of Hetye, those coming from Kissomlyó, Borgáta, Alsókáld, Felsőkáld, Kisköcsk, Nagyköcsk, Kemeneskápolna, Alsómesteri and Felsőmesteri were also baptised here.
The number of the population of the village, which today has hardly four hundred and fifty inhabitants, accommodated more than seven hundred in its golden age, but there were times throughout its history when hardly two hundred people lived there. The fluctuation in the number of its inhabitants remained within fifty in the second half of the XIX century, and the first half of the XX century. The explanation for this was that the source of income for those living in the village was the large estate, which had a solid economic foundation. It was the income from this large estate that made it possible during the times of bourgeois development that Sándor Nagy from Felsőbük could make a foundation for the building of a public hospital “to serve the suffering people of Kemenesalja” in today’s Celldömölk.
The wars of the XX century mobilised those living here, and many of the people did not only hold their grounds, but also sacrificed their lives for their homeland. During the second cataclysm, the village gave shelter to Polish refugees, and later, for a short time, the fleeing Croatian embassy moved to settle in the manor-house. In addition to losing their family members, the local people were compelled to experience the most personal and rudest war happening already in the time of peace: the temporary deporting and “repatriating” activity of the Soviet military police, in the framework of which Ukrainian prisoners of war and forced labourers were interrogated, selected and liquidated.
During the years of communism, the families of an earlier serf origin started to accumulate wealth safely. Parallel to this, immigrations started to more industrialised parts of the country, thus starting such a drop in the number of the population that could not be stopped until now. The agricultural organisation could only be started after several attempts. No plants, and thus no industrial, environment-contaminating activities have settled in the village and its vicinity until these days.
The Berzsenyi-cult, culture, education and self-education have gained a dominant character in the life of the settlement. In addition to nurturing traditions, it is also important that the village preserves and operates its cultural and social facilities: there is a kindergarten, an elementary school, there is a family doctor and a nurse. There are more and more people participating in the life of non-governmental-organisations and groups.
The thermal bath of Borgáta, just a stone’s throw away from Hetye, utilised since 1968 has reformed the life of the small regions over the last decades. The picturesque landscape, the beautiful and harmonious wines produced on the Small-Somlyó, and the bath with its good water entice more and more domestic and foreign citizens to live their lives settled fully or partly here, and to find harmony with nature in this place.
