Noszlop Summary
Noszlop
Summary
Summary
Noszlop, one of the oldest settlements of Veszprém county, is sitting close to the foot of the Bakony mountain. This region belongs to the Pápa-Devecser-plain, but the fields East to the village stretch further to reach Bakonyalja, the foot of the Bakony at the town of Pápa. The area surrounded by forests and hills, with its meandering river, silently flowing streams, and abundant springs is a perfect plain, which is a transition to Kisalföld, the second largest lowland in Hungary. The landscape is dominated by the Somló, a monadnock near the village.
The settlement, which stands on the verge of the Bakony mountain is uniquely abounding in springs providing mineral water, which are locally called wells. The water of the springs means blessing to the population, but it sometimes makes farming difficult. A major part of the fields around the village is still covered with forests. The high density of forests is gone by now, but the rich game and mushroom yield of the forests and pastures have served the people here well for several centuries now. Rye, wheat and other cereals are grown on the land, which is karstic in places.
The first known inhabitants of this area could be West-Slavic in the times before the Hungarian settlement. The name of the village was given by them, which derives from a Slavic Christian name. It means: do not surrender, do not give up! And the people of Noszlop never actually surrendered in challenging times of history. They could preserve their village, their Hungarian traditions and gradually made their homeland flourish.
Their ancient owners were the Noszlopy family, which took on the name of the village later, deriving their history back from the times of the settlement. Part of the land of the village was a royal estate donated by king Béla II to the abbot in Bakonybél. The Benedictine abbot of Bél elevated his servants of Noszlop to the rank of the clerical nobility. The domains of Ugod, Devecser and Pápa also had some lands here.
The Turkish military campaigns ravaged the village several times, but its people remained until 1596. Noszlop was a territory under the Turkish rule after 1567, and it belonged to the sanjak of Székesfehérvár in the Turkish administration. Its broken and scarce population had to pay tax both to the Turkish and the Hungarian landlords. When life was re-organised at the end of the XVII century, its nobility gained ground in the community, but the number of the newly settled in serfs was also on the grow. At the end of the XVII century, the village witnessed a process of social separation with separate self-governments organised by nobles and serfs. After 1720, the settling of the serfs gathered a new momentum thanks to the Esterházy family owning the village.
With the end of the Turkish rule, the people of the village took the land areas of the neighbouring devastated villages: Tima, Tegye, Meréte and Becse under farming, and Kis- and Nagybogdány were also attached to Noszlop administratively. These latter villages used to be royal and ducal estates in the early Middle Ages with some privileged serving peoples living here – with the separate cast of trumpeters of battles and the royal court among them.
Conflicts between religions became sharper with the forced settlements. The aboriginal population followed the reformed faith, while the new settlers were Catholic. The Catholic people started to dominate within less than a century, but religious peace was born slowly. At the end of the XVIII century, Noszlop was one of the largest settlements of the county both in terms of population, and of its social and economic role. A significant Jewish community was formed after the 1780-ies.
The serfs started to become cotters at an accelerated pace in the XIX century, the pressure of the Esterházy estate with its more than one thousand holds became stronger and stronger. The upper layer of the nobility obtained high ranking positions in the county, they pursued official carriers, and the noblemen having one plot of land tried to earn a living from craftsmanship in addition to farming.
In the freedom fight of 1848–49, young people were fighting courageously for their homeland, they evaded the fights only in the last months hiding themselves in the woods. Tradition has it that many people joined Gáspár Noszlopy’s irregular troops. He was known as the off-spring of the original landowning family in the settlement, and was executed after the revolution.
After the defeat of the freedom fight, the serfs of Noszlop concluded a new and fortunate contract with the landlords, and they obtained a permission to organise two national fairs in 1868. The fairs held on the week of the days of Saint George and Saint Theresa brought some bustling in the life of the settlement, and facilitated the development of its economy.
At the end of the XIX century, the settlement became the centre of the notary. These were the years when – in parallel to national events – the people of Noszlop started their emigration to overseas countries. The majority returned, and bought houses, lands and animals from the money gathered in America.
The opening of coalmines following the First World War brought an upsurge in the life of local people only for a while. Due to the natural process of diminishment, and to further emigration, the number of the population kept decreasing. The lands around the village were owned by two large estates, and small-holders were farming on smaller lands of twenty-sixty holds. The two large wars of the XX century took their tithe of the male population of the village.
Due to the economic changes after 1945, Noszlop became a co-operative centre, and its ability to retain the population became stronger. Part of the population found work locally, there was a high number of the those who worked in the plants of neighbouring towns. The development of the village has gained momentum over the last decades. The village is enriched by public and private construction, The opening of the Local History Collection in 2000 shows that the people of Noszlop consider the past of their village and community important.
