Dombóvár (German: Dombowa) is a town in Tolna County, the seat of the Dombóvár district. It is the third largest settlement in Tolna county, after the county seat, Szekszárd and Paks. Dombóvár celebrates the 50th anniversary of its becoming a city in 2020, and received this rank on April 1, 1970. The city's natives, who gained international recognition: painter Ferenc Szemenyey; János Rákóczi confectioner, master chef; Imre Mándi boxer; Gyula Aggházy painter; György Marcell painter, born discovered by art teacher: ceramicist János Majoros, painter Lajos Ujvári, painter József Vati. Ferenc Pataki chief accountant; Jenő Buzánszky footballer, member of the Golden Team; Sándor Hegyi footballer, member of the Golden Team; Pianist Miklós Ivanich; Zoltánné Kodály Péczely Sarolta singer, associate professor; dr. Sarolta Gundy, cancer researcher, former head of the scientific department at the National Institute of Oncology; Rózsa Norbert floating; dr. Norbert Köbli is a screenwriter, worthy artist; Róbert Gulyás basketball player; Tünde Szabó athlete; today's great women's athletic talent Anna Tóth Lili athlete and Bence Farkas today's great male athlete talent; and who were not born in Dombóvár but lived / live here: sculptor Károly Fetter; Vali Rácz Hungarian actor and singer; Bernát János painter; Judit Kaponya painter; Sarkantyu Simon painter; Károly Radó painter, sculptor; Sculptor Gábor Varga, athlete Kitti Zircher. Esperantists living in the city have been cultivating the traditions and ideas of the Esperanto language since 1923.
It is located in the southwestern part of Tolna
county, in the Kapos valley, next to the border of Baranya and
Somogy counties.
Approach
On the road
Its most
important approach route is the main road 61 between
Dunaföldvár-Kaposvár-Nagykanizsa, from where the main road 611
starts south, in the direction of Sásd. From Hőgyész and the main
road 65, the road 6532 leads to Dombóvár (Tüske district). The side
road No. 65 188 is also numbered as a five-digit national road,
which branches off from the 611 to the west and stretches on the
southern border of the town, Kaposszekcső, to the outskirts of
Szőlőhegy.
By train
The city is also a significant railway
junction: the (Budapest–) Pusztaszabolcs – Pécs railway line passes
through it, from which the Dombóvár – Kaposvár – Gyékényes, Dombóvár
– Komló and Dombóvár – Bátaszék railway lines branch off.
Furthermore, the Dombóvár Economic Railway operated here until the
1990s, and it was also one of the endpoints of the Dombóvár –
Lepsény railway line. The city is served by two railway stations:
Dombóvár railway station and Dombóvár lower railway station.
Districts
Districts: Újdombóvár, Tüske, Gunaras, Kakasdomb,
Szuhajdomb, Kertváros, Szőlőhegy, Old Town, Downtown, Mászlony,
Szarvasd, Szilfás
Prehistory
The finds found
here prove that it was inhabited in both the Stone and Bronze Ages.
The i. e. In the 4th century, the Celts occupied the territory of
Transdanubia, then i. s. In 8, it was finally conquered by the
Romans and annexed to the empire. In Pannonia, Dombóvár owed its
existence due to its favorable location. Important roads led here
from Roman times from Pécs (Sopianæ) to Győr (Arrabona) and Óbuda
(Aquincum), the presence of the Romans is proved by several
archaeological finds. The town existed in Roman times as Pons
Sociorum Mansuectina (Kapos river crossing), but there was only one
bridge here, while in a nearby village, Alsóhetény, there was a
military fortress, the walls of the irregular square forming a total
of 1879 meters and an area of 21 hectares. In the 5th century, the
“lost” city of Iovia may have been near the fortress; According to
recent archaeological research, this settlement was located slightly
north of Alsóhetény, about 7 kilometers from the border of Szakcs -
Felsőleperd (Gölösi-dűlő).
Middle Ages
The area of
Dombóvár was inhabited by the Hungarians who conquered it early,
as evidenced by the excavated graves from this age. Its first known
fortress in today's Island Forest is a brick castle tower excavated
in recent years, which already stood in the 12th century. The name
of the settlement is mostly derived from the Slavic dobov (o) (=
oak).
The ruins of another castle, probably built after the
Tartar invasion, can still be seen on the banks of the Kapos. His
first known written record dates back to the time after the
extinction of the Árpád House, when it was acquired by Henrik Ban, a
Wenceslas party. After the consolidation of the power of Charles
Robert, he took back the former royal property, and in 1326, by the
exchange of the castle, it came into the possession of the Csák
clan. The new possessive family called themselves Dombai based on
the place name.
After the disaster in Mohács, the Royal
Chancellor István Werbőczy appeared among the owners of Tolna
County, who enriched his fortune with a clever marriage policy and
contracts. After the death of János Dombay, the castle became the
property of Imre Werbőczy through his wife, Örzse Werbőczy. Together
with the castle of Döbrököz, the Turks occupied it in 1543-44. in
the campaign of.
Dombó Castle lived its heyday in the 15th
century. Within the walls of the castle lived Pál Dombay, a jurist,
judge of the royal plaque, who in 1514, together with several of his
companions, was commissioned to revise Werbőczy's Tripartitum, a
significant part of which was written here. The work, published in
1517, decisively defined political and legal thinking in Hungary for
four centuries.
Sebestyén Tinódi Lantos stayed in the former castle of the Dombó
family in 1537. Here he obtained his beautiful story entitled "Jáson
és Medea" ("It was made by student Sebestyén Tinódi, when his left
hand was afflicted with a heavy wound in Dombóvár." - we can read in
the poems)
The Turkish conquest found a castle in Dombóvár
and a busy small town next to it. The Turks tried to settle
permanently in the occupied territories. According to the new
administrative system, the pasalik (governorate) of Buda was one of
the centers of the Koppány sandzak (district), and the Turkish held
a permanent army in it.
After the expulsion of the Turks
The area around the castle was scorched in 1683 by the troops of Ali
Mustafa, fleeing Vienna. After the expulsion of the Turks, the
castle was blown up and most of its stones were scattered. The
population built the first houses of the new settlement on today's
Kakasdomb, and from there it expanded first to the north and then to
the east. The vast areas that became depopulated around Dombóvár
were bought by Prince Pál Esterházy, made a center of estates, and
from then on the Esterházys played an important role in the life of
the settlement.
At the time of the 1767 census, 112 families
already lived in Dombóvár.
The number of members of the
National Guard established in Dombóvár on April 10, 1848 was 101.
The troops of Jelasics marched into the town on September 27, 1848,
after two days they marched on, but at Ozora they were disarmed on
October 7 by the insurgents of Vilmos Csapó.
In Elek Fényes's
Geographical Dictionary of Hungary, published in 1851, we can read,
among others, the following:
Dombóvár Hungarian market town
in Tolna county megy Lakja 1200 kath., 80 Jews, kath. paroch., waist
with manor buildings. The border of Róna is first class, the meadows
are good, the vineyards and the forest are abundant…
The
latter statement is confirmed by the Triple Small Mirror published
in 1848:
Tolna county, if you want,
Here is Simontornya,
Bonyhád, Kölesd, Szegzárd,
Look at Paks, Tolna, Hőgyész, Báta
(Bátát), Földvár (Dunaföldvár),
Döbrökö, Ozora and the rich
Dombóvár.
Railway construction and the first half of the 20th
century
The real development of Dombóvár was brought by the
railway construction. The Dombóvár-Zákány line was completed in
1872, and the following year the Dombóvár-Bátaszék-Baja line. In
1882, the railway line between Budapest and Pécs, which affected
Újdombóvár, was handed over. The railway line between Dombóvár and
Veszprém was opened in 1906. By 1908, the Bátaszék line was rebuilt
in Újdombóvár, making Dombóvár one of the most important and largest
railway junctions in the country.
The city was severely
affected by the outbreak of World War I. In addition to the planned
investments having to be postponed, the soldiers sent to the front
in Dombóvár fell en masse or were wounded. The poet László Szepessy
fell on the plateau of Doberdo on August 1, 1915, and Antal Regula
and András Schneider, among the teachers of the grammar school
established a year before, lost their lives on the front.
After the proclamation of the Soviet Republic, the directorate was
established in Dombóvár as well, its members were Antal Gyenis, the
school principal, György Molnár, a drawing teacher, and Vince
Udvari, the MÁV guide. After the fall of the commune, all three were
executed. The Trianon peace dictatorship did not directly affect
Tolna County.
The main goal of the Horthy era between the two
world wars was to revive the economy and culture, as well as to
regain lost territories. The formation of today's Újdombóvár
district began in 1919, when 200 cadastral acres were measured from
the Esterházy estate for 591 building plots. The settlement was
practically rebuilt by 1945.
By 1925, the building of the
convent clinic of the Order of St. Orsolya, founded in 1903, had
been erected according to the plans of Károly Möller, where until
1959, when he moved to Kaposvár, teacher training also took place.
Also in 1925, the Industrial Theater's mobile theater and restaurant
were handed over. The village hall of Újdombóvár was built in 1927
according to the plans of the architect Rezső Dvorzsák. In 1929, the
building of the Miklós Nádor High School in Esterházy was handed
over, which was designed by Ignác Alpár. In the same year the
Reformed Church was handed over to its destination, and the
following year the Lutheran Church was completed. In the same year,
teaching began in the newly handed over building of the school in
Újdombóvár.
In 1934, the Catholic Church in Újdombóvár was
consecrated, designed by architect Gábar Fábián. The city beach bath
was also handed over a year earlier.
World War II also caused
significant damage to the city. There were 541 victims of the
deportation of Jews in 1944. On December 1, 1944, the invading
Soviet soldiers slaughtered about 30 civilians, and the same number
were deported, mainly because of their German name. The World War II
memorial lists 217 victims.
After World War II
The coalition years following World War II were replaced by the
Communist dictatorship from 1948 onwards. In 1956, the news of the
events of October 23 in Budapest provoked a popular movement in the
village as well. on October 25, about 500 protesters marched before
his council house, and at their request, the council resigned. The
Revolutionary Committee was elected, and its chairman, Gyula Kovács,
announced that István Antal, chairman of the council, would remain
in place, and at the same time thwarted the distribution of weapons.
It is because of this that the revolution took place without
bloodshed throughout. On October 26, a general assembly was held in
front of the Soviet monument, during which the obelisk was
demolished, despite the fact that the red star had already been
removed from it by decree of the party committee.
Soviet
troops occupied the village without any resistance, on November 4th.
Members of the Revolutionary Council were deported to the Soviet
Union (Uzhgorod). Their release was also unusual, as they were
released by the personal counsel of István Antal and Béla Daradics,
the secretary of the party committee, when they were already in the
Kaposvár prison. Their return home - according to the recollection
of István Antal - was welcomed by a larger crowd than when the
revolutionary council was elected.
The administrative
unification of Dombóvár and Újdombóvár took place in 1946. In the
1960s and 1970s, under the five-year plans, several plants were
upgraded and new plants were set up. This is how the bread factory,
the glove factory, the Láng Machine Factory and the Patria Printing
House were established, and then the Screw Industry Company. The
hospital in Dombóvár was handed over on December 19, 1969, and today
bears the name of St. Luke, a medical evangelist.
On April 1,
1970, Dombóvár was declared a city, which gave new impetus to
industry and trade. Department store, hotel, house of culture, new
schools were built, gymnasiums and sports halls were established.
The Gunaras Thermal and Spa, the city's main tourist attraction, was
handed over on 19 May 1973 (the Dombóvár swimming pool was handed
over on 30 July 1933).