Cseri Miklós - Horváth Anita - Szabó Zsuzsanna (szerk.): Discover Rural Hungary!, Guide (Szentendre, Hungarian Open Air Museum, 2007)

IX Western Transdanubia

IX Western Transdanubia This regional unit presents the traditional vernacular peasant culture of Őrség in Vas County, Göcsej and Hetés in Zala County. The soil is clayey and difficult to cultivate but the area is rich in streams. There are abundant woods of oak, beech and pine. The first settlements were created by deforestation and the burning of the vegetation on the wooded hilltops. This created a pattern of scattered, loosely connected irregular settlements in the hills, however; in the lowlands villages with a regular street pattern developed. These villages came into being at the time of the Magyar conquest of Hungary and formed the frontier region up to the Mongol invasion of the 13th century. The frontier guards serving the king stayed on in their villages even after their organisations were discontinued. The people of Göcsej served as soldiers and served the royal court in exchange for which they were ennobled. The former guards living in the 18 villages of Őrség (the area of the defensive system) enjoyed privileges which lasted up to the 17th century. The people living here since the age of the Árpád-Dynasty are the descendants of the former border guards some of whom were raised to nobility and others of whom sank into serfdom. At the beginning of the Reformation the communities here became Protestant.