Utcák, terek, emberek. Zalaegerszeg régi képeken (Zalaegerszeg, 2001)

the main streets and on the squares. The County Hall was enlarged by an assembly room, a new floor was added to the Town Hall and a new prison-wing was built to the County Court. At the beginning of this centuiy a telephone system and electricity were installed and the Higher Elementary Girls' School was completed. The Lutheran and the Jewish believers celebrated the dedication of their churches. At this time two newspapers were already being published and the civil associations were in their glory. Through the complicated administration developed by the modern state organisation, Zalaegerszeg became a town of clerkship. The last decade of the 19th century left to us the first photographs of the town. The citizens had already had their photos taken earlier but the streets of the town became motives of photos only towards the millennium. From the earlier periods we know only four drawings picturing Zalaegerszeg. The first postcards showing the town were dispatched at the end of the century. At the beginning they were produced using drawings, later photographs, in which also the citizens appear looking agape at the camera. The rapidity of progress seemed to subside at the beginning of the First World War. In the Tens the town grew only with the building of the Catholic Journeymen's Association, then a sad sight, a large prisoner of war enclosure was established. The latter was converted into a detention camp, finally into a T.B. sanatorium. Between 1920 and 1940 the increase of population was minimal. (The number of the citizens grew from 13-239 to 1З.969, the number of the inhabitants of the surrounding settlements grew from 19.620 to 21.704.) The lack of water works and of drainage as well as of suitable roads caused many problems. In spite of these, the view of Egerszeg improved during those two decades. A splendid upper floor was added both to the County Hall and to the parsonage. The nunnery with the teachers' training-college and the church of Ola were completed, and also a new post office and a new railway station were built. The police, the health insurance, the fire-brigade and the administration of inland revenue got new head offices. New streets were opened, fine villas and family houses were built. László Csány statue (in preparation since 1907) was erected and precious good care was taken of the streets' nice appearance. Egerszeg's attribute „the flowery town" dates back to this time. Tourists' information about the town and its surrounding area called „Göcsej" were spread. The architectural view of the town was diverse at this time. It means on the one hand that spectacular growth and modernisation took place, most of the buildings erected at that time are even today considered as useful and fine monuments. On the other hand they show the signs of rigidity in taste and of turning towards the past, as if the architects and the builders would have liked to compensate for the lack of earlier centuries' historic buildings of archaic atmosphere. The Second World War and the air-bombings didn't cause considerable damages. But the removal of the Jewish citizens by force and their extermination was an irrecoverable loss. Part of the survivors also chose a new country. Around 1950, after the reconstruction and after inflation was mastered, a new period began in the life of the town. The clothing-factory was built, in the next year the creamery, then the refinery 'were completed. Small workshops developed into factories. The number of population quadrupled within four decades, the growth was especially dynamic in the Seventies. In 1980 about 55 thousand people lived here, which meant an addition of more than 40 thousand compared to the number of 1950. There was a great fluctuation of population in the town. A great number of the earlier leaders and of the wealthy citizens were forced to move around 1950. Some of them hid in the nearby vine-yards, others moved to distant parts of the country. Not only their valuables perished but they also took along their expertise and their memories. The people crowding into the town from the surrounding villages caused changes. At the middle of the Fifties largescale construction of flats began. (We close our picture book representing old Egerszeg with this decade.) New housing estates sprang forth at first in the plough lands, then the outof date, wet houses in the centre of the town were replaced by higher, finer, healthier homes, even if they "were somewhat duller. Throughout painful but at the same time wonderful changes the town was successfully shaped humanly. This could only be done by having respect for nature that is allied with human beings. Our town is said to be, not only by its citizens, but also by visitors, a most pleasant place to live in. This book, calling forth the past of our town, could come to life with the help of the Göcsej Museum and other public as well as private collections, with the help of enthusiastic citizens full of local patriotism, and the Municipal Council of Zalaegerszeg town of county rank at the 750th anniversary of the first mentioning of Egerszeg in written documents. 85