Aktuális  City of Zalaszentgrot The History
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The History of Zalaszentgrot
Celtic traces have been found
According to archeologists, who found La Tene graves, swords and other
everyday objects during the excavation in the sandmines of Szentgrót,
there was a Celtic settlement before. Due to the findings this Celtic
settlement functioned only as temporary accommodation since they have
not found any traces that would refer to permanent living standards.
Roman presence
Roman presence can be continuously seen in the place of Zalaszentgrót
from the end of the 1st and the beginning of the 2nd century to the 5th
after the Celtic antecedents. The place used to be perfectly suitable
to cross the river. Sources have been found on both sides of the Rive
Zala. As a result of the romanisation, stone and brick buildings,
import ceramics, glass and graves findings that are concerned to
be significant in the region, it has been heavily proved that
Zalaszentgrót used to be Maestriana situated 30 miles from Savaria and
25 miles from Mogetiana.
The Hungarian conquerors appeared
According to some assumptions the tribes of Bulcsú settled down here
when the first Magyars appeared. One of the branches of this tribe must
have been the Türje clan. The clan that conquered the area used to have
a nomad way of life at the beginning and they decided to settle down
only at the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries. It is supposed that at
that time it was quite an important question of power for the Magyars
to overtake the routes that were essential from both commercial and
military points of view as soon as they could, and to have the
inhabitants under controll, so that they would live among them. The
swamp area from Lake Balaton used to extend to somewhere nearby
Zalaszentgrót.
The origin of the eponym
One of the most important data of the town is 1083 or 1084, which years
are supposed to be the years of the naming, however, no written
evidence can prove it. According to the experts who deal with the
history of the settlement it got its name after St. Gellért bishop. The
bishop who died as a martyr was declared a saint in 1083 or 1084,
therefore the settlement could get its name after him only after his
death. There are some written evidence in connection with the naming
from 1491, which is a certificate of Ulaszlo II.. In this document he
gave Szent Gót to the Hagymasy family as a present. According to the
Pray codex the certficate included the following: Nikolai Hagymas
e St. Giróth , however, it was mentioned as Zend Geród as
well. Giróth is supposed to be the same as Gellért, and Geród is the
same as Gerard, which can be abbriviated as Grót. Szent Grót is most
probably the abbriviated form for St. Gerard that could possibly
originate from the name of St. Gellért. The first written evidence for
the existence of the settlement is from 1247. In order to understand
this document you should go back to the Türje clan, the owner of
Szentgrót. The first well-known person of the clan is mentioned namely
as Gecse or Géza who had the name Szentgiroliti then
Szentgrót . His son was Dénes, the ban and later palatine of Hungary
who founded the Premonstratensian abbey. He is mentioned in the
certificate as Dénes master ban from Szent Gerard who was given the
abbey that was established by himself in addition with four holdings, a
two-wheeled mill by the bank of the River Zala, and half of the amount
of the taxes as well. The donation was approved by Béla IV. and he
ordered the chapter of Veszprém to inaugurate the Premonstratensians of
Türje. It happened on 22th September 1247.
The Hagymásys, the captains of the castle
According to the Pray codex Szent-Grót is one of the oldest market
towns of Hungary. The castle of the town was already mentioned in 1299:
at this time the clans of Türje, Pósa, Tamás and Dénes came to an
agreement that included the following: the castle of Szentgrót with
Szentgrót, Zyad, Barka and Udvarnok villages belonged to the clan of
Tamás. The town was mentioned as a market town in 1397 in the
documents. In 1433 the widow of Szentgróty László got married to
Hagymásy László, so since then Szentgrót belonged both to the Hagymásys
and Szentgrótys. After the death of King Albert in 1444 Bánffy Pál
robbed the castle due to the treason of the captains of the castle.
Afterwards, he agreed with Szentgróty János and the sons of
Hagymásy László on giving the fortress back in return for 560 gold
forints. But this was not the end of the case. Two years
later the Hagymásys and the Szentgrótys sued Bánffy Pál in order to
compensate the damage that had been caused while occupying the
castle. In 1480 another interesting case came up when Lady Ágota,
the daughter of Szentgróti László and wife of Hinfi Benedek, and her
son, Hinfi Imre, made a complaint to King Mathias that after the death
of King Albert Hagymásy Miklós and Szentgróty János took over their
fields in Szentgrót. After the death of King Mathias during the period
of the civil war Hagymásy Miklós and Szentgróti János robbed and burnt
down the holdings of Bánffy Miklós and Jakab, who were the descendants
of their old enemy s. Hagymásy Miklós, who was the deputy overseer of
Zala County according to the Pray codex, submitted to Miksa Tsar,
therefore, Ulászló II took away the castle from the disloyal, the
Szentgrótys and the Hagymásys and donated it to the Bánffys from
Alsolendva. However, the Bánffys did not have such a powerful army by
which they could enforce the will of the King. As a result of this, the
castle remained in the hand of the Hagymásys . Hagymásy Kristóf, who
became the captain of the castle, killed Ujlaki Lajos, the bishop of
Veszprém and carried out huge destruction in Vas, Zala and Somogy
counties, according to some sources. The nearby Premonstratensian
monestry in Türje was attacked and robbed several times by the
Hagymásys. Even the stones of the monestry were taken away to fix the
walls of the castle of Szentgrót. It was the only solution since the
nearest stone mine was in Sümeg, 20 km far. In 1556 Ferdinand I
supported Queen Isabell, therefore, Hagymásy Kristóf went
toTransylvania and his wealth was given to Macedoniai Peter, the
financial advisor of the King. The defenders of the castle could not
continuously protect the castle against the stronger and stronger
Turkish attacks from 1550, and in spite of the victories, the area of
the castle became a tax payer one of the Turkish. We know from the
sharing that there were upper and lower buildings and a chapel as well
in the castle. During the Turkish regime, after the capitulation of
Kanizsa in 1600, Szent-Grót became a border castle where the captains
were still the Hagymásys. At this time a voluntery guard including 600
horsemen lived in the castle of Szent-Grót on their own budget. In
return the town was free from the taxes and the tithe of the bishop. At
this time the surroundigns of the castle were boggy and swampy,
therefore, completely suitable for protection. Several resolutions of
the parliament (in 1601, 1602, 1655, 1659 and in 1681) ordered to fix
the castle. In the 15th century Franciscan monks settled down in the
market town and built a monastry and church, but they left them as soon
as the Turkish appeared in town and later these buildings were used as
building material by bigger constructions.
In 1634 Hagymásy István János and Péter were the owners of the castle,
but they made a bell for the Lutherans. The Turkish tried to occupy the
castle several times, but unsuccesfully. However, the soldiers of the
border castles had to face not only the Turkish but a greater enemy,
poverty as well. In 1654 the Hagymásy brothers died, so their family,
and Earl Batthyány Ádám bought their inheritance. The selling was
approved by Lipót I in 1663, only after the death of widow of Hagymásy
László, so the Batthyánys got it at that time. According to a survey
from 1681 the town had suffered great damage from the Turkish army in
that year. While there were only 32 soldiers in the castle in 1682, in
1688 there were 250 hussars and 300 voivodes. In 1686 the liberating
movement against the Turkish army started, during which the castle of
Kanizsa was liberated in 1690, therefore, the castle of Szentgrót lost
its significant role.
During the period of the Hungarian insurrection at the turn of the 17th
and 18th centuries the attacks around the castle did not stop. The
market town became the booty of the Kurucz, the Croation and Rác
armies, who took away everthing that was portable. At the beginning of
the year of 1707 an army of 125,000 soldiers went through the town
under the command of General Rabutin de Bussy Lajos and left
behind only traces of devastation.The army of the Emperor destroyed the
border castles one by one: in 1710 General Schilling destroyed the
castle of Szentgrót as well. The fortress became so run-down during the
looting that its stone were taken away and later a new palace was built
on the spot of the previous one.
The 18th century: the era of prosperity
In the 18th century trademen, craftsmen settled down here, trade was
increasing, schools and societies were being organised this
was the era of prosperity. The first national census was taken in 1776
in Szent-Grót, but it did not mention the population, it stated only
that there were 143 houses at that time. (Later, in 1890 the national
census showed that there were 273 houses and 2,243 people.) The roads
of Szent-Grót were still swampy when Earl Batthyányi Ferenc arranged
the streets, built a bridge and had the swamp dried.
The leaders of the town tried to turn the settlement into the centre of
the area. They wanted to reach this by improving trade. In 1830 they
got the permission for organising weekly fairs, according to which the
trade increased. Different societies were founded (eg. reading clubs),
and the Casino was opened as well. Dr. Batthyány Károly and Deák
Ferenc, who lived in Kehida at that time, helped with the foundation of
the Zalaszentgrót Reginal Department of the National Association. The
customs office and the great restaurant was built in 1844. The deputy
office was installed as well in 1854 and in the very same year a bridge
over the River Zala was constructed too. In 1855 there were quite a lot
of people infected by cholera and 164 of them died of it. Beside the
disease the population of the settlement had to face fires as well. In
1857 42 houses, including the Town Hall as well burnt down. There were
plague of locusts several times, as well. In August 1859 the
inhabitants could only get rid of the locuts that they made horrible
noises according to some sources. The title of being a market town was
ceased by the civil parliament in the 1870s and afterwards Szentgrót
got the rank of a city.
The clock of the town was designed and built by a clockmaker from
Vienna and it was installed on 15th October 1870, however, the bell of
the church that weighed 8 tonnes was only put in its right place in
September 1873.
The most significant date of the following decade that was full of
heavy damages was on 20th August in 1883 when the first brick of
the hospital was grounded. Zala-Szent-Grór used to be the centre of the
region and the seat of the electing area as well at that time. Deák
Ferenc was the first elected representetive of the town in 1848. (
After the independent war the constitution lost its validity,
therefore, there were no elections till 1861.) The settlement was the
seat of the region as well as the industrial and commercial centre of
the area from 1887. By the end of the 1800s more and more schools were
opened, the post office was built in 1867, the telegraph office in 1883
and Perényi Antal founded the first fire brigade in 1882. The railway
line was built from 1892 till Türje and from 1895 till
Balatonszentgyörgy. The town got telephone facilities in 1896. The town
had a committee with 24 representetives, three doctors, a vet, a
pharmacist and three qualified midwives. There were aproximately 100
craftsmen and traders. Zala-Szent-Grót owned the constabulary with 5
gendarmes, and had a savings bank, as well. The settlement was
significant from the commercial point of view as well: there were 8
fairs and cereal and cattle market in the town.
The population shared several relegions, but only three of them created
parishes: the Roman Catholics, the Agostan Lutherans and the Jewish.
The parishes had their own churches and schools. In the autumn of 1896
the town could open its crésche from the donation of Okolicsányi Emília.
After the wars
The large village had a lots of victims in World War One. In 1921
Károly Imre founded a brick factory here, and the Health House were
built in the same year as well. In 1922 the Hungarian Royal and State
fruit plant was introduced in the settlement. The production started in
1922 in the predecessor of the cheese factory, in the butter factory.
In the very same year a generating plant and a steam mill was built as
well. The population of the settlement was 2458 and the majority of the
lords of the large village owned small dwarf holdings in 1935 according
to some sources. Durig World War Two lots of Polish soldiers and
civil got shelters. German and Hungarian troops surrended the
settlement in March 1945 only after serious damages in their last
battles. There were 262 victims from Szentgrót
Szentgrót, the 100th town
In 1949 the population of Szentgrót was 3.683. In 1950 Kisszentgrót was
atteched to the settlement and since then up to 1963 Zalaszentgrót was
a seat of the region with its independent council. After the war
a significant improvement was started during which the co-operative
movement was introduced. Beside the agriculture, the distilling,
textile and wood industry, the brick factory and wine-growing and
vegetables processing plants were installed. Aranyod and
Tüskeszentpéter was attached to the town in 1963 and after it lost its
seat role in the region n 1978 the following settlements were united
with Zalaszentgrót by 31st December 1983: Csáford, Tekenye,
Zalaudvarnok and Zalakoppány. Zalaszentgrót was given the title of
being a town on 1st January 1984 after the attachment was ended. This
was the 100th time to give the rank of being a town in the country.
According to the current process that went through the country at that
time, the court, the deputy office, the public prosecutor s office and
the police station was closed in Zalaszentgrót.
Nowadays...
Most of the companies and co-operatives turned into ltd-s after the
change of regime in 1989. The co-operatives were disintegrated, and the
most frequent economic forms were the individual managements according
to the changes that occured in the structure of the economy.
The cheese and brick factory was closed, however, edible-snail
processing plants were opened though only for seasonal purposes. The
product of this process, the snail is going to be appointed to the list
of Hungaricums.
The main street and square of Szentgrót was being rebuilt due to the
town developing plans during these years. At the very same time shops
with their unique style makes one side of the Cultural Centre of the
town that overlooks Batthyány Street more beautiful. The drain-pipe
sytem was firstly installed in the town, then in different parts of the
town as well as a result of regional investments. Several old buildings
were refurbished, (Little Palace, Corner of the market, Kossuth block),
the monument Stone Bridge was able to be saved from total destruction.
In 1997 the leaders of the town decided to build a thermal spa and
leisure centre in the suburbs of the town. Zalaszentgrót joined the
settlements who make their living from tourism in 2001 when the
construction of the spa was finished. The centre was extended with an
indoor pool in 2003 and the mineral water that comes up from the ground
here has become well-known all over the country with the help of a
multinational company. The population of Zalaszentgrót was 7823 in 2002.
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