Pusztavám is a village in

Fejér County Fejér (, ) is an administrative county in central Hungary. It lies on the west bank of the river Danube and nearly touches the eastern shore of Lake Balaton. It shares borders with the Hungarian counties Veszprém, Komárom-Esztergom 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 ...

. Tucked against the south-western fringe of the

Vértes Mountains Vertes, Vértes or Vertès may refer to: * Eva Vertes (born 1985), American cancer researcher * Marcel Vertès (1895–1961), Hungarian costume designer * Vértes Hills, mountain range in Hungary ** Battle of Vértes, 1051 *Les Négresses Vertes ...

, Pusztavám occupies of gently sloping

loess A loess (, ; from ) is a clastic rock, clastic, predominantly silt-sized sediment that is formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust. Ten percent of Earth's land area is covered by loesses or similar deposition (geology), deposits. A loess ...

plains and wooded

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

foothills, about north-west of

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 ...

Census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

returns record 2,198 inhabitants in 2022, of whom almost 40 % declared German ethnicity—the highest proportion in Fejér County. The main street follows the Császár-víz brook, while farm lanes climb north to the Blue Trail footpath and the ruins of Csikling-vár, a 13th-century

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 ...

that guards a

saddle A saddle is a supportive structure for a rider of an animal, fastened to an animal's back by a girth. The most common type is equestrian. However, specialized saddles have been created for oxen, camels and other animals. It is not know ...

on the Vértes ridge.

History

Medieval sources cite the settlement as Villa Poshta (1341) and later Puszta-Tam, but the modern village dates from 1724, when Count

Esterházy The House of Esterházy, also spelled Eszterházy (), is a Hungarian nobility, Hungarian noble family with origins in the Middle Ages. From the 17th century, the Esterházys were the greatest landowner magnates of the Kingdom of Hungary, durin ...

resettled the deserted estate with 56 Swabian families from

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Province of Hohenzollern, Hohenzollern, two other histo ...

. Their half-timbered

longhouse A longhouse or long house is a type of long, proportionately narrow, single-room building for communal dwelling. It has been built in various parts of the world including Asia, Europe, and North America. Many were built from lumber, timber and ...

s and Roman Catholic

piety Piety is a virtue which may include religious devotion or spirituality. A common element in most conceptions of piety is a duty of respect. In a religious context, piety may be expressed through pious activities or devotions, which may vary amon ...

still colour the streetscape: the triple-

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

d Church of St John of Nepomuk (1752, rebuilt 1810) anchors the

baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

core, and a roadside Schwabenkreuz commemorates those deported to Germany in 1946.

Brown coal Lignite (derived from Latin ''lignum'' meaning 'wood'), often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, Combustion, combustible sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35% and is considered ...

seams discovered in 1920 triggered a new chapter: the Bányatelep pit opened in 1926, peaked at 220,000 tonnes in 1958 and closed in 1992—today a miners' memorial and an open-air machinery row recall seven decades of underground work.

Culture and economy

Coal's demise shifted employment toward

forestry Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests and woodlands for associated resources for human and Natural environment, environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and ...

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mining, open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock (geology), rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some juri ...

stone and commuting to the Mór industrial strip, yet the German heritage thrives. Each September the Schwäbischer Kirchweihtag (Kiritog) packs the main square with

brass band A brass band is a musical ensemble generally consisting primarily of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles that include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands (particularl ...

Tracht ''Tracht'' () refers to traditional garments in German-speaking countries and regions. Although the word is most often associated with Bavarian, Austrian, South Tyrolean and Trentino garments, including lederhosen and dirndls, many other Germa ...

dancers and sausage stalls, while the local Grundschule teaches a bilingual programme accredited by the National German Minority Self-Government.

Tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the Commerce, commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. World Tourism Organization, UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as ...

is modest but growing: way-marked loops link the village to the István-kilátó panorama tower (404 m) and to hillside cellars producing

Olaszrizling Welschriesling is a white wine grape variety, unrelated to the Rhine Riesling, that is grown throughout Central Europe. Origin The descendance of Welschriesling is uncertain. The German name ''Welschriesling'' literally means ' Romanic Rieslin ...

for the

Mór Mór () is a town in Fejér County, Hungary. Among the smaller towns in the Central Transdanubia Region of Hungary, it lies between the Vértes Mountains, Vértes and Bakony Hills, in the northwestern corner of Fejér County. The historic roots ...

wine district; cyclists connect via logging tracks to Lake Zámoly and Lake Velence. Recent EU rural-development grants resurfaced four kilometres of access road and fitted

solar panel A solar panel is a device that converts sunlight into electricity by using photovoltaic (PV) cells. PV cells are made of materials that produce excited electrons when exposed to light. These electrons flow through a circuit and produce direct ...

s to the municipal hall, aiming to make Pusztavám a "green gateway" to the Vértes. With its Swabian folk calendar, mining relics and easy access to limestone ridge-walks, the village blends industrial memory and ethnic character in a

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 setting.

References

External links

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