Magyar Hírek, 1985 (38. évfolyam, 2-26. szám)
1985-08-22 / 17-18. szám
The term used in the title is not found in any geography book. Yet ‘ Hungarian Switzerland” still exists, and no less famous person called attention to it, than the man who coined the term seventeen years ago: Gyula Illyés. Sometimes it is better to listen to poets than to geographers. Anyone ready to make a small detour and leave the customary rut can make certain of this. So, if you are driving from Budapest towards Pécs, turn off Highway No. 6 at Bonyhád, or if you happen to go from Siófok to Szekszárd, take the side road leading to Tevel. In both cases you will reach a special world. The place-name “Tevel” on a board, that greets you when you reach the village, recalls a grandson of Prince Árpád. Further along the road the second part of Kis- and Nagyvejke sounds just as age-old Hungarian as the names of the other villages, Závod, Majos, Mucsfa, or Aparhant, a compound name of the formerly separate villages of Apar and Hant. But perhaps the most im-Hungarian portant of them all is Lengyel, which was once the property of Count Sándor Apponyi. Even the biggest one of the villages mentioned has no more than a thousand inhabitants, and this not only for historic but also for geographical reasons. The peculiar architectural style of the national minority popularly called Svebráns, with narrow, but long houses built at a right angle to the front, is typical of almost all of these villages. One hears the old German dialect everywhere in the streets and in the shops, but even more wellspoken Hungarian. This is the district, this Hungarian Switzerland, which gave a permanent home to the largest group of the Székely uprooted by the havoc of the last war, resettled from the Bukovina in Switzerland the Bácska, and then forced to flee again. The most characteristic and dominant building in each of these villages hidden like pearls in the shells of dales are the churches. The one at Aparhant was recently renovated and the tower was given a new roof. But the Apponyi mansion surrounded by a park at Lengyel is undoubtedly one of the most imposing buildings of the whole county. The park is now well cared for, and the mansion houses an agricultural college and a trade-school. Count Sándor Apponyi, who died without an heir, in 1928, left a considerable part of his estate for cultural and scientific purposes, thus his famous collection of Hungarica to the National Széchényi Library. His name is commemorated not only by a memorial plaque on the wall of the Szekszárd museum. but also by the “Lex Apponyiana”, an Act of Parliament in 1927 dedicated to his magnanimity. There was a time, when people expected to hear the bell toll for little villages like Mucsfa, Závod, Kisvejke, for their population seemed to melt away as many of their inhabitants migrated to towns. Now, however, new homes .are being built, up and the local bus services enable people to live there, but work in nearby towns or mines. The villages of this “Hungarian Switzerland” are becoming increasingly more attractive for those, who live in towns. They go there now perhaps only for the week-end, to relax, but who knows, tomorrow they might settle for good. ivAn ordas 1. The Apponyi chateau at Lengyel 2. A barogue statue in front of the church at Závod 3. Kisvejk village PHOTOS BY KAROLY GOTTWALD 62
