Vértesszőlős is a village in Komárom-Esztergom county,

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

. It is most known for the archaeological site where a Middle Pleistocene human fossil, known as "

Samu Samu or SAMU may refer to: Places * Samu, Sierra Leone * Samu, South Khorasan, a village in South Khorasan Province, Iran * As-Samu, a town in the Hebron Governorate of the West Bank * Samu, Sarawak, Malaysia, a settlement near Kerangan Pinggai * ...

", was found.

History

Prehistory

Vértesszőlős sits at the foot of the

Gerecse Mountains Gerecse is a mountain range in north-western Hungary, that belongs to the Transdanubian Mountains Geography The range lies in the Central Transdanubian region and connects Vértes Hills with Pilis Mountains in Komárom-Esztergom County, betwe ...

, which were at one point in the sea. At the bottom of this sea, many fossils accumulated, including that of a ''

Homo erectus ''Homo erectus'' (; meaning "upright man") is an extinct species of archaic human from the Pleistocene, with its earliest occurrence about 2 million years ago. Several human species, such as '' H. heidelbergensis'' and '' H. antecessor' ...

'' individual that is now known as Samu.''History of Vértesszőlős'', vertesszolos.hu
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Recent history

For most of its history, Vértesszőlős has been constantly inhabited by different peoples, including

Celts The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancien ...

, Romans, Avars,

Moravians Moravians ( cs, Moravané or colloquially , outdated ) are a West Slavic ethnographic group from the Moravia region of the Czech Republic, who speak the Moravian dialects of Czech or Common Czech or a mixed form of both. Along with the Silesi ...

, and

Hungarians Hungarians, also known as Magyars ( ; hu, magyarok ), are a nation and ethnic group native to Hungary () and historical Hungarian lands who share a common culture, history, ancestry, and language. The Hungarian language belongs to the Urali ...

. According to legend, it was near Vértesszőlős that

Svatopluk I of Moravia Svatopluk I or Svätopluk I, also known as Svatopluk the Great (Latin: ''Zuentepulc'', ''Zuentibald'', ''Sventopulch'', ''Zvataplug''; Old Church Slavic: Свѧтопълкъ and transliterated ''Svętopъłkъ''; Polish: ''Świętopełk''; Greek: ...

and

Árpád Árpád (; 845 – 907) was the head of the confederation of the Magyar tribes at the turn of the 9th and 10th centuries. He might have been either the sacred ruler or ''kende'' of the Hungarians, or their military leader or '' gy ...

fought. At the beginning of the 18th century, the village had several Lords, who recruited Slovakian-speaking

serfs Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery, which developed ...

to settle the land. These settlers radically transformed the landscape; they drained the marshes, cut forests to make pastures, and brought sheep into the territory. By the end of the 18th century, the Slovakian settlers decided to build a church, which was completed in 1792. In 1809,

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

's armies invaded Hungary, and ramparts were built in Vértesszőlős. In

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, 236 inhabitants of the village fought, of which 32 died and 7 became invalids. In 1929, the names of the fallen were recorded on the Hero Memorial which stands in front of the village's church. This was also the year that the village's school was built. In

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, 23 soldiers from the village died. The front passed through the village twice, causing many buildings to be damaged. In 1944, the parish priest of the village died, and the pastor died a year later in January 1945. It wasn't until March 1945 that the Soviet forces displaced the German occupants from Vértesszőlős. Between 1990 and 1994 the settlement grew with several newly built public institutions: a sports hall, a football field, a new school building, a health house, and a pharmacy had been built. After Hungary joined the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

in 2004, from 2006 onwards, the EU development funds, more significant than the previous ones, provided new impetus to the development of Vértesszőlős.

References

External links

*
Street map (Hungarian)
Populated places in Komárom-Esztergom County {{Komarom-geo-stub