Horváth M. Ferenc (szerk.): Vác The heart of the Danube Bend. A historical guide for residents and globetrotters (Vác, 2009)
Tartalom
62 VÁC IN THE ÁRPÁD ERA (895-1 301) St Margaret This proves that at the beginning of the 1270s there were already Germans living in Vác. They were called hospes, i.e. guests just like their fellows having settled down elsewhere in the country. The charter of the German town in Vác did not survive, but fortunately we can deduce its contents. In 1272 royal grace made Philip the Bishop of Vác the high sheriff of Nógrád County and the king endowed the bishopric with the Castle of Nógrád and the village below. In 1284 Philip's successor Bishop Thomas granted a charter to the mainly German settlers who had been moved into the spacious Castle of Nógrád. Researchers say this charter followed the privilege given to the settlers of Vác. Based on this assumption we can conclude that during the period while they were setting up house and planting grapevine the German "guests" in Vác were also exempt from taxation for some years, and after that they were bound to pay taxes by the house. (It means that the bishop disregarded the level of their income or volume of crops.) The newcomers were free to choose their own priest and head of the community, all they were supposed to do was to introduce them to their landlord for approval. Anyone who had paid the ground rent was allowed to move house without any obligations. In order to support immigration anyone was welcomed to move into the village, to buy a house or any other properties there. As opposed to the custom of the age, the landed and other properties of a person dying heirless were not obligatorily passed to the landlord but could be inherited by anybody. Markets were permitted freely where the merchants were allowed to go and sell their goods tax free. In lawsuits the landlord passed the right of judgement to the leader of the village; it was only in major cases like theft, arson or murder that he or his deputy took over control. Besides - just like in Nógrád - it was also possible in Vác to pay the tax due to the bishop in two or three instalments on the appointed holidays. The German town was established somewhere around the present Március 15 Square, in the place of the former rural settlement, which had been levelled by the Mongols, near the crossing on the Danube. In the middle of the Main Square shaped like an elongated triangle, in the place of the former church a new one was built of stone, in honour of St Michael Archangel. Keeping to the traditions and the orders of the church, the graveyard was set around the church. According to Christian customs the graves were of east-west orientation, and the dead were buried lying on their Carved capital of St Michael's Church (PMMI-TIM) The model of the medieval Vác-German Town
