Nagylók is a village in the Fejér county of

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 ...

and its settlement is known as horseshoe burial to its civilians and townspeople. It was first historically recognized as Lok in 1258. Lying on the open loess of the Mezőföld plain, Nagylók spreads over between the small market towns of

Sárbogárd Sárbogárd () is a town in Fejér county, Hungary. The town is at the intersection of important railroad routes in Hungary: this is where electrified routes from Balaton and Pécs merge with non-electrified railways from Baja and Szekszárd. A ...

and

Sárosd Sárosd is a village in Fejér county, Hungary. People * Gyula Farkas (mathematician), famous for Farkas' lemma External links * in Hungarian Street map
Populated places in Fejér County Jewish communities in Hungary {{Fejer-geo ...

. The cadastral lands, drained by minor branches of the Sárvíz canal, are given over almost entirely to mechanised arable farming—winter wheat, maize and sunflower—while a ribbon of smallholdings and service yards flanks the main road. The settlement appears in 1258 as Lok, a name most scholars trace to the Slavic ''loky'' "marshy pool". By 1872 it had acquired its modern form Nagylók ("Great Lok") at the request of Count Pál Zichy, though 18th-century documents still mention Öreglók ("Old Lok").

Archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

confirms far earlier occupation: rescue digs at Kislók in 1903 uncovered eighty

Bronze-Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

graves and the embankments of a late-prehistoric

hillfort A hillfort is a type of fortification, fortified refuge or defended settlement located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typical of the late Bronze Age Europe, European Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe, Iron Age. So ...

locally called Bolondvár ("Fools' Fort"). Finds of Roman

votive A votive offering or votive deposit is one or more objects displayed or deposited, without the intention of recovery or use, in a sacred place for religious purposes. Such items are a feature of modern and ancient societies and are generally ...

vessels, early-Hungarian horse-and-wagon burials and a hoard of

Béla IV Béla may refer to: * Béla (crater), an elongated lunar crater * Béla (given name), a common Hungarian male given name See also * Bela (disambiguation) * Belá (disambiguation) * Bělá (disambiguation) Bělá may refer to: Places in the Cze ...

coins testify to continuous traffic along the mediaeval

salt road A salt road (also known as a salt route, salt way, saltway, or salt trading route) refers to any of the Prehistory, prehistoric and Recorded history, historical trade routes by which essential salt was transported to regions that lacked it. Fro ...

that once linked the

Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

with the

Transdanubia Transdanubia ( ; , or ', ) is a traditional region of Hungary. It is also referred to as Hungarian Pannonia, or Pannonian Hungary. Administrative divisions Traditional interpretation The borders of Transdanubia are the Danube River (north and ...

n salt marts. The village suffered heavy losses in both world wars—records list 68 dead and 73 missing from 1914–18—and the defensive earthworks raised in neighbouring fields during the 1945 Lake Balaton offensive are still visible on

aerial photograph Aerial photography (or airborne imagery) is the taking of photographs from an aircraft or other airborne platforms. When taking motion pictures, it is also known as aerial videography. Platforms for aerial photography include fixed-wing ai ...

s. Population has drifted downward for decades, from 1,297 inhabitants in 1960 to just 999 in 2024; the age profile has aged accordingly as younger residents leave for jobs in

Székesfehérvár Székesfehérvár (; ; ; ; Serbian language, Serbian: ''Стони Београд''; ), known colloquially as Fehérvár (), is a city in central Hungary, and the country's ninth-largest city. It is the Regions of Hungary, regional capital of C ...

or the Budapest industrial belt. Community life, however, remains lively. The three-aisled

Roman Catholic 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 ...

Church of the Assumption, erected in brick in 1888 and fronted by a separate

belfry The belfry /ˈbɛlfri/ is a structure enclosing bells for ringing as part of a building, usually as part of a bell tower or steeple. It can also refer to the entire tower or building, particularly in continental Europe for such a tower attached ...

, underwent a €35,000 interior and

façade A façade or facade (; ) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loanword from the French language, French (), which means "frontage" or "face". In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important asp ...

refurbishment completed in March 2022; the grant briefing notes that new electrics, window frames and a porch canopy were installed to secure the building's role as the village's cultural and

liturgical Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and participation in the sacred through activities reflecting praise, thanksgiving, remembra ...

hub. Each June the "Nagylóki Napok" summer fair fills Hunyadi Street with

folk dance A folk dance is a dance that reflects the life of the people of a certain country or region. Not all ethnic dances are folk dances. For example, Ritual, ritual dances or dances of ritual origin are not considered to be folk dances. Ritual dances ...

troupes and horse-cart parades, while older residents still recall the Luca-day ritual in which masked youths roamed the outlying farmsteads scattering

chaff Chaff (; ) is dry, scale-like plant material such as the protective seed casings of cereal grains, the scale-like parts of flowers, or finely chopped straw. Chaff cannot be digested by humans, but it may be fed to livestock, ploughed into soil ...

and blackening doorposts to bless the coming harvest—an idiosyncratic Fejér-county variant of Hungary's

Advent Advent is a season observed in most Christian denominations as a time of waiting and preparation for both the celebration of Jesus's birth at Christmas and the return of Christ at the Second Coming. It begins on the fourth Sunday before Chri ...

customs.

References

External links

Street map
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nagylok Populated places in Fejér County