Zsámbék () is a town in
Pest 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 ...
.
Location
Zsámbék is located 30 km west of
Budapest
Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...
along the
M1 motorway in the
Gerecse
Gerecse is a mountain range in northwestern 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, betw ...
Mountains. Its neighbouring villages are
Tök,
Perbál
Perbál () is a village in Pest county, Budapest metropolitan area, 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 ...
,
Páty
Páty is a village in Pest (county), Pest county, Budapest metropolitan area, Hungary. It has a population of 7,476 (2018).
The neighbouring villages are: Zsámbék, Tök (település), Tök, Budajenő, Telki, Nagykovácsi, Budakeszi, Biatorbágy ...
,
Herceghalom,
Mány
Mány () is a town in Hungary, located in the north-east of Fejér County in the Zsámbéki Basin.
History
In the Middle Ages Mány was in Esztergom county. Mány and Örs were completely destroyed in the first decades of the Turkish occupation. ...
,
Bicske
Bicske (; or ) is a town in Fejér County, Hungary. It is around west of Budapest. Its administration has undergone many changes; it has been a settlement, a village, a market town, and a village constituting an administrative division.
History ...
, and
Szomor.
History

Zsámbék has been inhabited since
Paleolithic
The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic ( years ago) ( ), also called the Old Stone Age (), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone tools, and which represents almost the entire period of human prehist ...
times. It has seen
Celtic
Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to:
Language and ethnicity
*pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia
**Celts (modern)
*Celtic languages
**Proto-Celtic language
*Celtic music
*Celtic nations
Sports Foot ...
,
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of Roman civilization
*Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...
and
Avar populations throughout its history, according to archaeological finds. A Celtic coach's remains were found there as well as a bronze trumpet.
In the 1180s the wife of
Béla III of Hungary
Béla III (, , ; 114823 April 1196) was King of Hungary and King of Croatia, Croatia between 1172 and 1196. He was the second son of King Géza II of Hungary, Géza II and Géza's wife, Euphrosyne of Kiev. Around 1161, Géza granted Béla a du ...
, Margaret Capet, who was the step-sister of the French king Philippe Auguste, granted land around the village to a knight named Aynard, in recognition of his service to the King for safely escorting Margaret from Paris to Esztergom in 1186. His origin is obscure, but he would certainly have been selected for the military responsibility from those who the French king trusted. The only identifiable person in the king's entourage named Aynard was at one time the Viscount of Limoges, who had been outlawed by the Anglo-Norman court of Henry II in 1183. This person was assassinated in Paris in the year 1199. Aynard's family built the
Premonstratensian
The Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré (), also known as the Premonstratensians, the Norbertines and, in Britain and Ireland, as the White Canons (from the colour of their habit), is a religious order of canons regular in the Catholic Chur ...
church beginning in 1220.
The church was destroyed in 1241 during the Mongolian invasions. Following the destruction, during the reign of
Béla IV of Hungary
Béla IV (1206 – 3 May 1270) was King of Hungary and King of Croatia, Croatia between 1235 and 1270, and Duke of Styria from 1254 to 1258. As the oldest son of Andrew II of Hungary, King Andrew II, he was crowned upon the initiative of a group ...
, the church and monastery were rebuilt. Positioned at an important merchant route — halfway between
Esztergom
Esztergom (; ; or ; , known by Names of European cities in different languages: E–H#E, alternative names) is a city with county rights in northern Hungary, northwest of the capital Budapest. It lies in Komárom-Esztergom County, on the righ ...
and
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 ...
and near Buda — the village underwent rapid growth.
In 1467
Matthias Corvinus
Matthias Corvinus (; ; ; ; ; ) was King of Hungary and King of Croatia, Croatia from 1458 to 1490, as Matthias I. He is often given the epithet "the Just". After conducting several military campaigns, he was elected King of Bohemia in 1469 and ...
granted the rights of a borough. He also gave the fortress to his son,
John Corvinus
John Corvinus (, Croatian language, Croatian: ''Ivaniš Korvin'', Romanian language, Romanian: ''Ioan Corvin''; 2 April 1473 – 12 October 1504) was the illegitimate son of Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, and his ...
.
In 1541, Turkish troops occupied the fortress and held it for 145 years. During this occupation, they also built a Turkish bath, the ruins of which are still visible in the village.
In 1686 general
János Bottyán fought there against the Turks. Later the
Zichy family
The House of Zichy (of Zich and Vázsonykő) is the name of an ancient Magyar family of the Hungarian nobility, conspicuous in Hungarian history from the latter part of the 13th century onwards.
History
The first authentic ancestor of the Zic ...
became the landowners of the region. They then rebuilt the castle.
An earthquake in 1763 ruined the church once again. It was not reconstructed after this horrific event. Settlers from
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
, who came to live in the abandoned village after the Turkish occupation, took the stones from the church and used them for building houses and fences. Many of the church's stones are still present in the walls of older houses.
In 1946, as part of
the larger expulsion of ''Volksdeutsch'' from central Europe, 3,700 German inhabitants of Zsámbék—or approximately 95% of the town's population—were forcibly resettled to
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
. Ethnic Hungarian settlers from the
Great Hungarian Plain
The Great Hungarian Plain (also known as Alföld or Great Alföld, or ) is a plain occupying the majority of the modern territory of Hungary. It is the largest part of the wider Pannonian Plain (however, the Great Hungarian Plain was not par ...
repopulated the town.
Notable people
*
József Molnár József Molnár may refer to:
*József Molnár (painter) (1821–1899), Hungarian painter
*József Molnár (writer) (1918–2009), Hungarian writer, journalist, publisher and printer
{{Hndis, Molnar, Jozsef ...
, painter
*
Joseph Gungl
Joseph Gungl, correct: ''Josef Gung'l'' (1 December 1809 – 1 February 1889), was a Hungarian composer, bandmaster, and conductor. He was soprano Virginia Naumann-Gungl's father.
Biography
Gungl was born in Schambeck, Austrian-Hungarian mo ...
, Austrian composer
Twin towns – sister cities
Zsámbék is
twinned with:
*
Mărtiniș
Mărtiniș (; Hungarian pronunciation: , meaning "St. Martin of Homorod (Homorod), Homorod") is a Communes of Romania, commune in Harghita County, Romania. It is composed of twelve villages: Aldea (''Abásfalva''), Bădeni (''Bágy''), Călugăr ...
, Romania
*
Miglianico, Italy
*
Wettenberg
Wettenberg is a municipality in the district of Gießen, in Hessen, Germany. It is situated northwest of Gießen
Giessen, spelled in German (), is a town in the German state () of Hesse, capital of both the district of Giessen and the a ...
, Germany
*
Zawiercie
Zawiercie () () is a town in southern Poland located in the Silesian Voivodeship with 49,334 inhabitants (2019). It is situated in the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland near the source of the Warta River. The town lies near the historical region of Sil ...
, Poland
References
Further reading
*Dercsényi, D. (1972): ''Románkori építészet Magyarországon.''
Corvina
Corvina is an Italian wine grape variety that is sometimes also referred to as Corvina Veronese or Cruina. The total global wine-growing area in 2010 was , all of which is grown in the Veneto region of northeast Italy, except for planted in Ar ...
, Budapest
*Gerevich, T. (1938): ''Magyarország románkori emlékei.'' (Die romanische Denkmäler Ungarns.) Egyetemi nyomda. Budapest
*Gerő, L. (1984): ''Magyar műemléki ABC.'' (Hungarian Architectural Heritage ABC.) Budapest
*Gervers-Molnár, V. (1972): ''A középkori Magyarország rotundái.'' (Rotunda in the Medieval Hungary). Akadémiai, Budapest
*Henszlmann, I. (1876): ''Magyarország ó-keresztyén, román és átmeneti stylü mű-emlékeinek rövid ismertetése'', (Old-Christian, Romanesque and Transitional Style Architecture in Hungary). Királyi Magyar Egyetemi Nyomda, Budapest
External links
Official websiteCircular panoramaAerial photographsZsámbék.lap.hu - link collection to Zsámbékyűjtemény
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zsambek
Populated places in Pest County
Romanesque architecture in Hungary
Hungarian German communities