Fertőrákos Summary

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Fertőrákos
Summary
King Emeric in his charter dated in 1199, mentioned this village by the name of Racus. It can be found between Sopron and Fertő, on the bank of brook Rákos, on the water front of the series of hills embracing lake Fertő from the West. Rákos means full of crabs due to the fact that the water of the brook is rich in crabs. This is also proven by the German name Krewspach (later: Kroisbach), which first appeared in 1457. The village and its vicinity belonged to the estates of the bishopric in Győr established by King Stephen around 1002.
The main produce of the agricultural area surrounded by forests was grapes, but animal husbandry, reed production and fishery were also important. Not only the church and the vicar of Rákos can be traced back, but its early bishop’s palace, also. Its owners first used it as a summer manor-house, but later during the Turkish rule, they retreated here for a long period to find shelter from the fights and the occupation. This was the circumstance which elevated Rákos to the rank of a borough (1582). It had several tradesmen, organised two fairs, and had a wall around it.
Sopron, which was developing into an independent town supervised directly by the sovereign, soon set its eye on the land and customs revenue of the growing settlement with an average population of 500. It, however, could get what it wanted only twice, between 1527 and 1533, and in 1620, always for just a few years.
In the last march of the Turks against Vienna, in July 26, 1683, the borough got devastated. This mournful day marked the total expulsion, and oppression of the dominantly Hungarian population. During the following more peaceful period, the serfs, who were mostly German, had to work in a way regulated by the bishopric, and had to live their lives under the spiritual guidance of the Catholic Church.
The parish school of the almost fully German and Catholic borough could develop slowly until the resettlement of the population in 1946. Its main reason might have been that although the local people were pious, they were reluctant to change their traditional ways of production, and social habits. They were not willing to release their children from domestic work and send them to school. During the centuries, only one name was recorded of a person who studied abroad.
A Latin book published in 1738 by Furlani, a doctor in Sopron, writes about mineral springs at the foot of the hill near the borough. Unfortunately, these springs have become depleted by now. There have been, however, numerous borings carried out in the vicinity, and on the village front of the lake, which prove that the doctor’s descriptions gave a true reflection of the existence of these natural resources. Balf, a spa operating since Roman times is not far from here.
Everyday people and scientists have collected numerous evidences supported by hazy myths but also scientific research in the modern age about the capriciousness of Lake Fertő, the Westernmost steppe-lake in Hungary. It dried out completely quite frequently to be ploughed and covered by water again. The population of the village earned their living with changing fortune from harvesting reed and fishing. Growth came with the vineyards. The people in Rákos drudged away their lives toiling on micro farms, and clearings covered by forests in the shadow of the bishopric’s estate.
The rank of borough gradually became lack-lustre. The fairs were not organised any more. In 1871, the national assembly passed a law on settlements, which meant the end of the rank of a borough. Certain progression was made in 1902, when from an administrative point of view it started to be considered as a large village. In order to distinguish it from other settlements under similar names, it received the name of Fertőrákos in 1906. The power of the state was represented by a notary and a gendarme post. Electricity was only introduced at the beginning of 1939. There were the following changes in the population: there were 997 people in 1773, 1256 in 1828, 1980 in 1880, and 3371 in 1934. Almost all of them were Catholic and of German origin.
The settlement has never had railways. We cannot talk about industry except the mills operating next to the brook somehow or other. Work has been on-going, though, in its famous quarry for many centuries now. This was especially significant from an economic point of view in the second half of the XIX century. The limestone from Rákos has been used for the construction of many public buildings in Vienna.
The Peace Treaty of Trianon closing the I World War was amended in relation to Sopron and its vicinity by the Treaty of Venice in 1921. According to the consolidated result of the ordered referendum, Sopron and its vicinity together with Fertőrákos remained Hungarian. The economic hardships between the two world wars first caused a booming smuggling activity, which was later followed by a vivid legal trading along the border. The Jewish inmates of labour camps transported here during the II World War were helped with food by the population of the village. The Soviet troops occupied Fertőrákos in March 31, 1945.
The census, held at the beginning of 1941, later proved to be fatally important: on the 1. February, there were 3745 people living in the village. The propaganda of the time encouraged those of a German origin to give evidence of their feelings as being Hungarian at heart. Unfortunately, this did not help in 1946 when the deportation was ordered. Three wagons pulled out of the village packed with Germans, 90 percent of the population, in April 24, May 6 and 7, and transported them to the American zone in Germany. Their place was taken by settlers coming from various regions, hardly knowledgeable about agriculture. In January 1, 1949, the number of the population was 2053.
The Peace Treaty of Paris in 1947 did not bring any changes here. The real changes came with the land reform and the Communist Party pushing its way further on a national level. The estates of the bishopric were taken away, and the palace was confiscated. In the council system, the settlement of Fertőrákos first belonged to the district of Sopron of Győr-Sopron county organised from the former Sopron and Győr-Moson comitat, and later it was absorbed by the satellite area around Sopron. Co-operatives were formed. Reed harvests were managed from Fertőszentmiklós. The border system, the barbed wire, and the mine barrage at times paralysed life on water, and transport on roads and across the border. Most of the population found jobs in the town itself. The first sign of the alleviation of the severity was that Hungarian sailing boats appeared again on the water of the Fertőrákos bay in 1958, and that the Cave Theatre hosted its first Hungarian performance in June 27, 1970. Still, it took several decades for circumstances to improve. ICOMOS, the International Council of Monuments and Sites, played an enormous role in discovering the village at the end of the 1980-ies. After its appearance here, its publications and surveys, the protection, renovation and wide recognition of the resources of the village were started.
Near Fertőrákos, there is a place, where the Eastern Germans finally broke through the barbed wire barrage. It comes down in world history as the Pan-European Picnic of August 19, 1989. The settlement has developed since the social and political changes in 1989, due to its growing tourism. The village is fully supplied with public utility services, and we can witness of the mushrooming of newly built hotels.

 

 

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