Horváth M. Ferenc (szerk.): Vác The heart of the Danube Bend. A historical guide for residents and globetrotters (Vác, 2009)

Tartalom

North of Vác, along the Danube and the Ipoly rivers

The road runs along the Danube and Ipoly rivers, the latter constituting the frontier of the Hungarian Republic. The settlements form a string between the rivers and the Börzsöny Mountain Range. The population is mixed: the area has been inhabited by varions ethnic groups: Germans like Saxons specialised on ruining in the Middle Ages, Swabians, Slavs and Hungarians, who settled or resettled here after the Ottoman occupation. For lack of enough ploughland their main sources of income were the crops offered by the forests and the rivers, and grape- and fruit-growing. Villages along the Danube have been a popular holiday resort places since the end of the igth century. Families of civil servants, members of the intelligentsia, artists moved here from the capital city to stay for the summer as tenants or house owners.

The villas wedged between the peasant houses have transformed the image of the villages. In some of the settlements there are village museums or local history exhibitions presenting the characteristic features of local lifestyle and culture.