"Késő maradékainknak tétessen jegyzésben!" Írásos emlékek Vác város múltjából, 1074 -1990 - Váci Történelmi Tár 1. (Vác, 1996)

Tisztelt Olvasó! - polgármesteri ajánlás

Dear Reader, The work you are getting into your hands now supplies a want, as the citizens of Vác have missed it for a long time. Nobody has ever undertaken to publish a work like this, the Vác Historical Storehouse, comprising and summarizing everything related to the subject, and it is sure to determine the studies in local history and the way of imparting knowledge about the history of the town. I hope that more and more citizens of our town are filled with the noble feeling of parochialism as we all live in a town with a historical past which makes us undertake some obligations. From a geographical point of view Vác is situated in a spot which can be found on every European map, as it is this place where the run of the Danube turns south, so it has always been an important crossing place. Although we do not know much about the earliest period of the town, it must have been quite a developed settlement even before the Hungarian Conquest, as it is mentioned as a Jazig settlement by Ptolemaios. The town has great traditions on the field of local history writing. Let me refer to the eponym of our local museum, Ignác Tragor, and the works of Antal Arzén Karcsú and Imre Farkasfalvy. Since that time several works have been written, as for instance the monography of Vác in two volumes, which - in spite of some mistakes in it - must be considered an important book of reference. The popular traveller s guides also contain some important data. I recommend this work to everyone who is really fond of our town - to the people who know its past and history well or not so well, and to the people who are moving and settling here now, so that they can get acquianted with their new dwelling-place. I wish this book could be found at every school, every library, and on the bookshelves of the citizens as well. What is more, it is my firm conviction that stories could be told about our national and especially about our local past and history even in the kindergarten. I also recommend this book to those people who left Vác long ago, but are still attached to the town by their memories. And last but not least, I recommend this book to our sister-towns, we may even discover some common roots of our past in it. I express my special thanks to the Vác Filial-Archive of the Archive of Pest county for the publication of this volume - which was readily supported by the local council - in the year of the millecentenary. In March 1996, Vác ^ László Lábai the Mayor of Vác