Somogysárd Summary
Somogysárd
Summary
Summary
The reader may get acquainted with the history and values of a settlement the name of which may remind us of the Somssich family from Saárd, a famous noble family in the past, and a widely known stud-farm today. The inhabiting peoples of yore gave the name of Sárd (mud) to their abode from its clingy clayey soil. The medieval village was formed in the Northern part of the village around 1200 A.D., and later, in the century following the Turkish rule, the immigrant Croatian-Sokác, Slovakian and Hungarian inhabitants already settled in today’s area of the village. The Catholic inhabitants became fully Hungarian with time.
A turning point came in the modern history of the settlement when Queen Maria Theresa gave Sárd to Antal Sommsich, the sub-prefect of Somogy county as a hereditary estate in 1741. The new landowner obtained the right of holding fairs, built a manor-house, a church and a manorial centre, thus laying the foundation for Sárd to develop into an oppidum. The number of the population grew at a relatively quick pace, and it amounted to almost a thousand by the time of the revolution in 1848. Both the serfs and the manor made good use of the opportunity of the national fairs, and the inhabitants of the oppidum conducted a significant animal husbandry in the XIX century.
In the era of bourgeois development, the manor could adapt well to the conditions of market economy, but the landowning peasantry of Sárd also made a good effort, and went out of their ways to turn the new opportunities to their benefit. The animal fair of Sárd remained a popular market-place of the area also in the XX century. The fact that the Somssich-estate took up most of the land area of the village often caused conflicts in the economic and social progress of the village. More than half of the population were agricultural workers and day-labourers on the estate straight up to the period of the second World War.
The Somssich family of Saárd played a decisive role in the public life of Somogy county for one and a half centuries, and several male members of the family obtained a rank in national politics. From them, the name of Pál Somssich should be mentioned, who held an office as president of the house of representatives of the Hungarian Parliament between 1869 and 1872. The baroque style manor-house and the Roman catholic church built by Antal Somssich, the founder of the family, are the principal jewels of the settlement.
The Somssich family established a famous breeding-stud as early as at the beginning of the XIX century, which was the basis for the Somogysárd National Stud it was converted into in 1953. It advanced to become one of the most recognised Hungarian studs by breeding trotting horses. The race-horses bred here achieved a series of successes at the domestic and international horse races. The horse-shows of Somogysárd are one of the most popular sports events in the region. The horse-base of the National Police Headquarters was established in the territory of the national stud in 1993, which also continues the noble tradition of race-horse breeding.
