Petőfiszállás Summary
Petőfiszállás
Summary
Summary
Petőfiszállás lies in the Southern part of the loess ridge of Kiskunság, on the sandy table-land between the Danube and the Tisza. Its climate is characterised by extremities, the annual number of sunny hours amounts to 2100, and it is often exposed to draught. There are mostly salt plants in its vegetation, and it is poor in forests. Its major water source is the Péteri-lake notable for its bird reserve, which belongs to the nature protection area of the Kiskunság National Park.
The oldest archaeological relics found in its vicinity date back to the Bronze Age. Later, the area was populated by Sarmatians, Avars, and Kumans. It is probable that it was a Templar settlement in the Arpadian time. We have the first written mention of the village from the assessment of taxes by the Turks relating to the area between the Danube and the Tisza, as well as the protocols of town Kecskemét. At this time, our village was mentioned as Ferencszállás in Hungarian sources, and as Karácsor in the Turkish defters. The second part of the name Ferencszállás suggests a Cumanian type settlement, while Ferenc, the first part is of a personal name origin, but so far we could not associate it with any specific person.
István Petrovits, the father of Sándor Petőfi had an entitlement to an inn and a pasture on the frontier of the village. István Petrovits and his family lived in Félegyháza between 1824 and 1830. The family earned their living from the slaughter house taken on lease from the town, the lease of the inn there, and the earnings gained from the sales of oxen fattened up on the pastures of Ferencszállás. The little Sándor (Petőfi) Petrovits learnt the Hungarian language in the Félegyháza environment, and the child’s eyes may have seen the endless plain first in Ferencszállás. The experience of the puszta, and his love for the Great Hungarian Plain remained with him throughout his life, and was built into his poetry. When in modern times, Ferencszállás became a village out of the isolated islands of farms, its name was changed for Petőfiszállás to pay homage to this great poet of our country.
Petőfiszállás survived half a century of Turkish rule. In 1546, 36 tax-payers were counted in the village. In 1562, it was one of the most populated places of the Kiskun area with its 55 tax-payers. Its population was dealing with the cultivation of corn, and the breeding of sheep. The settlement was destroyed around 1595, in the first phase of the fifteen year war.
Since that time until the middle of the XX century, Ferencszállás lived a characteristically puszta life. The depopulated area was leased by Kecskemét, and after 1745, it became the puszta of Félegyháza. At that time, its area was thirteen-thousand cadastral acres, on one-third of which there was corn production, and on the rest there was animal husbandry on pastures. During the following two centuries, the puszta had a fluctuating population, but continuously belonged to the farming area of Kiskunfélegyháza, which became a borough in 1774. During these two centuries, the past of Hungarian farm development could be traced in the Ferencszállás model, from the emerging of sporadic ranches, via the establishment of farming centres straight to the abolishment of the farm settlement.
The first detached farms and the first public building – the inn in Ferencszállás – of the puszta were built in the second half of the XVIII century. In 1853, the area was distributed among the successors of the redemptorists, who took part in the redemption in the Jászkun area. The distribution of the puszta initiated a significant change in the use of the field. There were no public pastures any more, and the new owners of Ferencszállás pursued arable land cultivation on their detached farms. After the 1860-ies, the plantation of vineyards, and the production of tobacco became wide-spread. The first vineyard farms were established around this time. The Szeged-Félegyháza railway line opened in 1854. The construction of the railway and the transversal public road on the plain significantly enhanced the widening of trade relationships. While during earlier centuries, only cattle-herds could be driven to remote markets, after the second half of the XIX century, the possibilities of corn, fruit and fattened swine sales also improved.
The distributed area of Ferencszállás became the detached farm area of Kiskunfélegyháza. During the following century, isolated farms became farm ranches, and the puszta was populated. In 1870, there were 2283 persons living in Ferencszállás, and by 1880, the number of its population became 3299. The number of detached farms changed from 503 in 1870 to 657 in 1880. This expansion only continued after the turn of the century. In 1961, 788 farms were registered around the only born settlement, but only 25 families were living within the village itself. In 1990, 1833 people were living in the 6778 hectar area of the village.
A chapel was built in the most densely populated area of Ferencszállás in 1876, and the first permanent school of the farm world was built here. In 1952, when Petőfiszállás was founded, children living on detached farms could attend five schools. The central school of the village was built in 1962, and teaching stopped in the last school in 1995.
The transformation into a village was started in 1952 by the Council of the Detached Farms, which had a national jurisdiction. The network of streets was built in the inner area of Petőfiszállás after 1960. At the same time, the population started to decrease. The population of Petőfiszállás decreased from 3161 to 1712 since it became a village until the millennium. People earned their living from agriculture in Petőfiszállás, just like in the earlier Ferencszállás. They found jobs in the trade unions, and in private farms, which mostly engaged in vegetable production under foil-tents, and some people worked in the local shoe factory, or in Kiskunfélegyháza.
A notable sight in the village is the Petőfiszállás-Szentkút place of worship managed by the Order of St. Paul. The legend of the miraculous spring was preserved by the shepherds on the puszta surrounding the ruins of the church built in the Arpadian age. The spring of Mary, considered to have a healing effect has been visited by more and more religious pilgrims ever since 1780. The chapel of the shrine was built from public debt in 1875. Its most populous feast is at Pentecost, to which groups arrive even from distant places in the country.
The lifestyle of the farm-village, which emerged from the pusza was determined by a traditional agricultural activity carried out by the detached farms until the 1960-ies. Dishes made from wheat, maize and potato were dominating in the food of the local people, and the main meat dish was mutton. Their entertainment was linked to work. Feather picking and farm balls were the most popular social events. The mentality of the people of Ferencszállás-Petőfiszállás was imbued with the Catholic faith, and the respect for the forces of nature.
The fields around Petőfiszállás belonged to the Cumanian territory after the Middle Ages, and then to the Jászkun region, and specifically to the Kiskun area within that until 1876. In 1876, when the municipal separation of the Jászkun region came to an end, Ferencszálláspuszta mostly used for animal husbandry on pastures, was attached to the Pest-Pilis-Solt Kiskun county together with Kiskunfélegyháza, the golden town of the puszta. In 1950, it was handed over to Bács-Kiskun county established at the time. It became a village in this county on January 1, 1952.
Petőfiszállás is linked to the small region of Kiskunfélegyháza, and specifically to the town of Kiskunfélegyháza even today via its administrative and economic relations.
