Gyenesdiás is a large village in Zala County, in the district of Keszthely. There is a civil guard in the settlement.
It is located on the northern shore of the Keszthely Bay, right next to Keszthely and 8 km from Hévíz, in a beautiful natural environment, bordered on the north by the Keszthely Mountains and on the south by Lake Balaton.
Railway
The settlement is connected to the Balatonszentgyörgy –
Tapolca – Ukk railway line by two railway stops (Gyenesdiás and
Alsóénz). In addition to the passenger trains between Tapolca and
Keszthely, several long-distance flights stop at the two stops, thus
connecting to Celldömölk, Szombathely, Kaposvár and Pécs, as well as
to Sopron in summer.
Road
The settlement is crossed in the
east-west direction by the 71 main secondary road running along the
northern shore of Lake Balaton. Its bus traffic is dense, as several
suburban, intercity and long-distance flights departing from
Keszthely affect the settlement, but in addition, the local flight
marked Keszthely 1 also runs to the village.
The
earliest finds in the area of Gyenesdiás are from the Neolithic
era. It became an important Roman residence from the 1st century,
and then Avars moved here. The medieval tomb found here was the
first such archaeological find in the entire Carpathian Basin.
In the Middle Ages, the first settlement was established in the
area of today's large village, which was probably already in the
11th century on the north-western border of today's Gyenesdiás. Its
first church dates from 1333, which was also the first written
mention of the village. From 1408 it became the property of the Rezi
castle, then in 1427 it became part of the Pethő family, which also
entailed the strong attachment of the settlement to Keszthely.
In 1548 the Turks burned the settlement, and from 1564 it was
taxed continuously, so the population decreased, and by 1686 it was
completely depopulated.
In 1696 a new settlement appeared on
the vineyard of Falud: Gyenes. During the 18th century, Falud and
Gyenes became the property of the Festetics family. By the end of
the century, Gyenes had already become a significant village, and
then in the 1820s it was a functioning mountain village, which was
divided into the Lower and Upper Free, which can still be observed
today. The chapel of St. Ilona, now a monument, was built in 1826
from the stones of the former village church in the settlement.
In the eastern part of Gyenesdiás in the Middle Ages lay the
village of Diás, the first mention of which dates from 1341. By the
1530s, the settlement consisted only of noble plots, most of its
area was vineyards. Already in the 17th century, mountain villages,
mainly farmers in Keszthely, cultivated grapes here.
Gyenes
and Diás merged in 1840 to form Gyenesdiás, which had an independent
self-government and received an independent school in 1871. Even at
the beginning of the 20th century, the population of the settlement
lived almost exclusively from agriculture.
The modernization
of the village took place after 1945, one of the most important
steps of which in 1954 was the construction of the best beach bath
on Lake Balaton. Since then, tourism has become the main source of
income for the settlement.
Standing shield with
round soles. The red shield head is divided by a tent field with a
blue shield field in which a green lower bandage (curved three times
in its upper cut) is located. In each red field there is a golden
rose cross. And in the blue shield field, above the bandage, a bunch
of golden, leafy grapes floats between two six-pointed silver stars.
In the middle of the shield sole, reaching into the upper arch of
the bandage, a three-pronged, golden spear rises. The shield is
surrounded on the right by a golden oak leaf and on the left by a
golden almond branch.
The symbol system of the coat of arms
In the red color of life, the two golden rose crosses point to the
living belief of the former - dating back to Roman times - and
today. The two crosses also symbolize the once two settlements (and
churches), Gyenest and Dias, which were merged in 1840 by
Gyenesdiás.
The green, three-curved band in its upper section
refers to the topographic conditions of this characteristic Balaton
Uplands area, the individual mounds evoke the ancestors of
Gyenesdiás (Falud, Gyenes and Diás villages), but indirectly - by
including an element of the Hungarian coat of arms, the triple mound
feeling too.
The golden bunch of grapes displays the famous
viticulture, dating back two thousand years, evoking the life of the
former mountain village as well as the current results of
winemaking.
According to Hungarian folklore, the stars draw
attention to famous ancestors ("who have a star"). We can think of
either the Avar leader who died here around 660 or the members of
the Pető family of the former owner Gersei. who were either the
chief lords of the county (then Zala) for half a century, or to the
Counts of Festetics, three of whom (Kristóf, György, László) played
a significant role in the life of the villages or the excellent
natives of the village.
The cute harpoon evokes the sea god Neptune and the classic
traditions with it, symbolizing fishing with a great past and living
traditions and the “divine” aquatic life, swimming, sailing,
relaxing relaxation in the blue of the “Hungarian sea” in the golden
summer light.
The oak leaf is a detail of the native plant of
the natural landscape, reminiscent of the millennials, heroic dead
and victims of the inhabitants of the settlement, the flowering
almond branch indicates the almond tree native here. symbolizes
working.