Horváth M. Ferenc (szerk.): Vác The heart of the Danube Bend. A historical guide for residents and globetrotters (Vác, 2009)
Tartalom
12 INTRODUCTION development was interrupted by the devastation of the Mongol Invasion In 1241. After their withdrawal King Béla I settled Germans in the area of the present Main Square. According to Italian and French writers, in the Middle Ages Vác reached European standards in the fields of education, architecture and arts, thanks to its Renaissance bishop, Miklós Báthori. Apart from the numerous remains displayed in our museums only a tower of the former town-wall has survived on the Danube bank. Our medieval monuments were destroyed during the 150 year long Ottoman occupation. The Baroque buildings of today's downtown were all built by the Hungarian, German, Austrian, Slovak, Czech, Greek, Serbian and Italian people who settled down here after the Ottoman occupation in the second golden age of Vác. Thus it became a multi-ethnic and multi-denominational town, We can still enjoy the results of their work. Several ecclesiastical and secular institutions were formed in that era, some of which function even today. The Roman Catholic Church organized a seminary, a lyceum, a library and built the new cathedral; the monastic orders ran churches and hospitals; subsequent rulers established a staff college and the first institute for deaf and mute children in the country, while the infamous prison founded by the state in 1855 still operates. The Calvinist, Lutheran, Orthodox Serbian and Jewish inhabitants of the town built their churches, prayer-houses and schools in the course of the 18-19th centuries. The reform ideas born in the first half of the 19th century flourished mainly in the second part of the century. Some of their significant antecedents were the Revolution and War of Independence of 1848/49 and the political Compromise (or Ausgleich) with the Habsburg Dynasty in 1867. The Age of Dualism also brought about the large-scale development of agriculture, industry and trade within the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The area of the town was extended, and at the beginning of the 20th century a new district was born beyond the railway lines: Deákvár. The development was stalled by World War I and the peace treaty of Trianon, followed by yet another cataclysmic event two decades later, World War II. Over the forty years following 1945 civil society ceased to exist in Hungary, which belonged to the Soviet-dominated Eastern block; Vác, however, developed into one of the industrial, commercial, educational and health care centres of Pest county. It managed to maintain and develop its status after the change of regime in 1990 as well. One must not forget the intellectual heritage left to us by our ancestors, which we care for and would like to present to our visitors. Our schools educated several eminent students who later became nation- or world-wide representatives of arts, science, politics or sports. Each of our institutions - the library, the archives, the museums and
