Bőszénfa () is a village in Somogy county,

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, 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 and ...

Geography

It lies 14 km south of

Kaposvár Kaposvár (; also known by alternative names) is a city with county rights in southwestern Hungary, south of Lake Balaton. It is one of the leading cities of Transdanubia, the capital of Somogy County, and the seat of the Kaposvár District and th ...

next to the road 67.

History

The settlement was donated by

Saint Stephen of Hungary Stephen I, also known as King Saint Stephen ( ; ; ; 975 – 15 August 1038), was the last grand prince of the Hungarians between 997 and 1000 or 1001, and the first king of Hungary from 1000 or 1001 until his death in 1038. The year of his bi ...

to the Pannonhalma Abbey. Its name was first mentioned between 1237 and 1240 as ''Bozais'' by ''Master Albeus''. Before the

Mongol invasion The Mongol invasions and conquests took place during the 13th and 14th centuries, creating history's largest contiguous empire, the Mongol Empire (1206–1368), which by 1260 covered large parts of Eurasia. Historians regard the Mongol devastati ...

it was inhabited by swineherds of the Pannonhalma Abbey. Its medieval name was ''Bajszinfalva''. In 1425 the sons of ''János Csepel de Szerdahely'', ''Imre'' and ''Dancs'' as well as ''Márton Dersfi de Szerdahely'' claimed the territory against the

Zselicszentjakab Abbey The Zselicszentjakab Abbey was a Benedictine monastery established at Zselicszentjakab (now Kaposszentjakab) in Somogy County in the Kingdom of Hungary in 1061. Its founder was the Palatine Otto of the Győr clan. The monastery was dedicated to t ...

. In 1570 the Turkish tax register listed the village with 10 households. Between 1626 and 1627 the settlement was owned by ''Farkas Imrefy'', in 1660 by ''Farkasné Imrefy''. According to the tex register of 1715 there were only 6 households. It came in the hands of the Festetics family, and between 1703 and 1715 it was ''Pál Festeticss possession. They built also the mansion there. In the 1770s ''Lajos Festetics'' - landlord at that time - settled the residents of Bőszénfa in his other villages and invited Roman Catholic Germans to Bőszénfa. In 1773 the village already had its own teacher. A new parsonage was established in 1787. During the reign of

Joseph II Joseph II (13 March 1741 – 20 February 1790) was Holy Roman Emperor from 18 August 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg monarchy from 29 November 1780 until his death. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Emperor F ...

it had 296 inhabitants, in the middle of the 19th century already 671 people. According to the census of 1870 there were 106 houses and 851 residents in the settlement. There was also remarkable industry with wooden shoe production, masonry, carpenters and cartwrights. A steam brick factory and a steam mill operated there. Its inhabitants worked in summer on the fields and in winter they cut woods in the forests. In 1910 out of its 984 residents, 586 were

Germans Germans (, ) are the natives or inhabitants of Germany, or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language. The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, constitution of Germany, imple ...

and 397 Hungarian. According to the religious affiliation of the citizens there were 960

Roman Catholics The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

, 19

Calvinists Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Christian, Presbyterian, ...

and 5

Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

. After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

70 German families were deported under the Expulsion of Germans. In their houses 20 Hungarian families could move in due to the

Czechoslovak–Hungarian population exchange The Czechoslovak–Hungarian population exchange was the exchange of inhabitants between Czechoslovakia and Hungary after World War II. Between 45,000 and 120,000 Hungarians were forcibly transferred from Czechoslovakia to Hungary, and their propert ...

.Bőszénfa története
/ref> ''Kisbőszénfa'', ''Rókamalom-major'' and ''Szenttamás-puszta'' were all parts of Bőszénfa.

Main sights

* Roman Catholic Church (The first one was built in 1777, but Pál Festetics replaced it with this one in 1902 and was dedicated to Saint Notburga.) * stable and granary built in the 19th century * In the valley of the ''Brook Surján'' runs a tourist path through the animal farm of the

University of Kaposvár The University of Kaposvár is a university in Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to ...

. Different types of cattle, boars, donkeys etc. can be seen there.

Gallery

File:Bőszénfa_1.jpg, Main square with the Roman Catholic Church File:Bőszénfa_2.jpg, Animal farm of the

File:Bőszénfa_6.jpg, Cemetery of Bőszénfa File:Bőszénfa 3.jpg, Houses in Bőszénfa File:Bőszénfa 5.jpg, Farm in Bőszénfa

Literature

* Hajdó Lászlóné - Dr. Takács Éva: A kaposvári járás községtörténeti lexikona - Iskola és Levéltár 21. (Kaposvár, 1984)

References

External links

Street map (Hungarian)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boszenfa Populated places in Somogy County Hungarian German communities in Somogy County