Tata (Latin: Dotis, German: Totis) is a town in Hungary, Komárom-Esztergom county, in the area of the Győr – Tatai terrace region, which forms the eastern edge of the Kisalföld, in the western foothills of the Gerecse Mountains. It is the center of the Tata district. It is the third largest settlement in the county after Tatabánya and Esztergom. The “City of Living Waters” and in 2010 it became the capital of biodiversity in Hungary, thus acknowledging the city's attachment to natural values.
Location
It is located in the northern part of
Transdanubia, at the confluence of the Kisalföld and the
Transdanubian Central Mountains, at the northwestern gate of the
Tatai Trench, which separates the Gerecse and Vértes Mountains. Its
highest point is Calvary Hill, which is 166 meters high, and its
lowest point is the Bright Bath, which is 120 meters above sea
level.
Neighboring settlements: Almásfüzitő, Baj, Dunaalmás,
Kömlőd, Kocs, Környe, Mocsa, Naszály, Neszmély, Szomód, Szőny,
Vértesszőlős
The county seat, Tatabánya, is located about 9
kilometers southeast, 60 kilometers from Budapest.
The main
road 1 and the Budapest – Hegyeshalom – Rajka railway line pass
through the city. Next to it passes the M1 (E60, E75 Vienna-Budapest
motorway, to which the city has a direct connection).
From
the nearby settlements it is connected to Bőny (via Kocs) by road
8136, to Kömlőd by road 8137, to Naszály by road 8138, to Szőny
(touching Grébicspuszta) by road 8139. From Lioness and Lake Venice,
the more than 60-kilometer road 8119 leads to the city.
The prehistoric and ancient founders
Tata has been
inhabited since ancient times, as evidenced by the archaeological
finds excavated here. Over the millennia, favorable living
conditions and heat sources have always attracted people to the
area. In the Tata powder mine, a hundred-thousand-year-old
settlement from the early stages of the Würm glaciation was
excavated. The prehistoric man settled here in dried-up limestone
tuff pools. In addition to diatomaceous earth and quartzite tools,
an important memorial is the marmot tooth plate. The authenticity of
the Nummulites frame, previously described as a scratched amulet, is
in doubt as it was not unearthed during the excavation. The Tata
prehistoric group may have been a temporary accommodation in the
nearby Szelim-hole in Tatabánya. After the Romans occupied Pannonia,
one of the limes' important military camps, Brigetio (Ószőny), was
built along the Danube. The camp near Tata was supplied with
drinking water from the so-called Kismosó springs on a Roman
aqueduct running along the side of Látó Hill. During the migration,
Germanic and Avar finds were found in greater numbers in and around
Tata.
The city in the Middle Ages
Tata was a royal estate
during the reign of the Árpád dynasty. The Benedictine abbey here is
reported in written relics from the 9th century.
Deodatus
came first from the clan of the counts of Sanseverina in Apulia, he
founded and equipped the monastery of Tata. Together with Bishop St.
Adalbert of Prague, he baptized King St. Stephen; therefore he gave
that monastery the name Tata, for King St. Stephen did not honorably
call him by his name, but called him Tata; the name of Deodatus was
lost, but Tata remained; hence the so-called cluster chrome. He has
no genus in Pannonia because, although she was married, she ended
her life without a remnant.
- The source of the Latin Able
Chronicle. Chronicle of Márk Kálti about the deeds of the
Hungarians. Translated and noted by László Geréb. The toponym Tata
in Komárom county is etymologically related to the name Deodatus.
The chronicle also reports that King Louis I (the Great) once
visited the Benedictine monastery accompanied by Mark Kálti. The
name of the settlement first appeared in the form of Tata in 1221.
From the 13th century until 1326, it belonged to the Csák family
estate. Construction of the castle also began at the time of their
possession. After the reign of the Csák clan, Tata received the
market town right from King Sigismund.
After 1410, the castle
of Tata was the lovely residence of Sigismund. He often stayed here,
and in 1412, in the castle of Tata, he received King Ulagló Jagello
of Poland, VII. King Erik of Denmark, Chief Inquisitor Jakab
Marchiai. Historians call the time of his reign the first heyday of
Tata. Albert Habsburg, who ascended the throne after Sigismund's
death, died in October 1439 in Neszmély, near Tata. His wife, Queen
Elizabeth, to steal the crown for her unborn son, stole it from the
Visegrád Castle with his court lady, Jánosné Kottaner. On February
21, 1440, the boy, the later László V., was born in Komárom. When
the baby was taken from Komárom to Székesfehérvár for coronation, on
May 14, 1440, the aristocratic escort and the Hungarian Holy Crown
spent the night in Tata Castle. Then, twenty years later, in 1459,
we read in a charter the name of the Lake City, which was later
fully integrated with Tata: “Thata hungaricale et slavonicale”, then
in 1489 in the form “Tothwaros”. . As a result of the Old Lake
separating Tata from Tóváros, the name Tótváros changed to Tóváros
from 1755. The two settlements lived their lives side by side for
centuries, but with separate administrations. After Sigismund, Tata,
together with the castle, became the property of the Rozgonyians,
one of the most powerful families of the 15th century. The quarrels
between the Rozgonyi brothers were of no use to either the castle or
the two settlements.
The slow destruction was stopped by King Matthias when he rebuilt
the castle in 1467, so it came into royal possession again. Matthias
converted the castle into a late Gothic-style residence described by
Bonfini. From 1472, Matthias hunted Tata once a year, and returned
here to rest from the fatigues of the wars with the Habsburgs. From
1485, Matthias often traveled from here in a chariot to Vienna,
which changed from the name of the village of Kocs adjacent to Tata
to the name of the fast chariot made here in European languages. The
king's mother, Elizabeth Szilágyi, also visited the Franciscan
monastery founded by King Sigismund. After Matthias' death, the
castle and the market town were briefly owned by his son, János
Corvin. From 1494 onwards II. The castle is mentioned as the
property of King Ulászló. Apart from some hunting and betting II.
Ulászló was not in Tata. An exception to this is the Parliament of
1510, which was held in the main square of the later Lake City due
to the plague that broke out in the country.
Tata in the new
age
After the defeat of Mohács, the Turkish troops raided the
Tata area, but Captain György Cseszneky successfully defended the
castle. The Turks occupied Tata Castle in 1543. During the 145-year
Turkish rule, he changed hands nine times and the castle was in
Turkish hands for a total of sixteen years. After the recapture of
Buda and the expulsion of the Turks, Tata also prospered rapidly. In
1695, there were already 223 families living in the market town.
During the Rákóczi War of Independence, in 1705, during the
Transdanubian campaign led by János Bottyán, the castle fell into
the hands of the Kurucs for a short time.
The Tata estate,
the Tata and the surrounding villages were bought in 1727 by József
Esterházy, who belonged to the branch of the younger Count of
Fronno. Architects invited to the market town: Jakab Fellner
(1722–1780), József Éder, József Grossmann (1747–1785), Antal
Schweiger, engineers: Ferenc Bőhm (1736–1799), Tata formed by Sámuel
Mikoviny (1698–1750), Tóváros and Wait. In the life of the first
four counts of Esterházy, between 1721 and 1811, Tata was not only
the administrative center of the manor, but also developed into one
of the most beautiful market towns in Komárom county, rich in
Baroque buildings, drained by swamps. In February 1733, Count József
Esterházy issued a proclamation with the aim of recruiting Catholic
settlers from the German provinces. The German settlers arrived in
Tata between 1733 and 1750. Birth registers kept in the Catholic
parish show that about 50-60 families came to the city during these
twenty years. Most common surnames: From, Hőger, Engszt, Hermann,
Swabian, Nikits, Camel, Giber, Ertl, Hotzer, Henzer, Suster, Starus.
The Catholic German settlers received housing from the Esterházy
estate outside Kertalja, inhabited by Hungarian Protestant serfs, in
the area towards the village of Kocs. From then on, to this day,
this part has retained the name Nájstik, translated from the German
word Neu-Stift. On the outskirts of Tata, in the Neu-Stift, from
1736 there was a permanent school with a separate German master. We
learned of the cessation of this school in 1830, when the
inhabitants of the settlement asked the ecclesiastical and city
authorities for a teacher to teach at least from St. Michael to St.
George in the New Settlement. Education was permitted in this form.
Teaching was held at different houses each year, and then the winter
school was abolished in 1835. In 1743 the Capuchins arrived in
Tóváros, in 1765 the Piarist in Tata, where they opened a grammar
school.
Description of the settlement at the end of the 18th
century:
Tata: Significant Mezőváros Komárom Várm. lord of the
earth Count Lord Eszterházy, the ‘whose Castle is adorned with, the
inhabitants are Catholics, and others. The ‘Piarists have famous
clusters here, their lakes are several, S. Ivan also has marble
quarries; it is inhabited by many craftsmen and tsapos; it used to
be more famous, its pasture is enough, its meadow is suitable, and
it occupies half a day's walking land, among forests; they produce
mediocre wines.
(András Vályi: Description of the Hungarian
Country, 1796–1799)
19th century
In 1809, after the defeat
of Győr by the French, Ferenc stayed in the court of Tata, the
count's castle, in Tata for two months. He signed the Schönbrunn
Peace on October 14, 1809, in the north tower room of the castle.
In the last stage of the Revolution and the War of Independence
in 1848-49, Tata and its surroundings played a significant role due
to the proximity of Komárom Castle. In the first days of May 1849,
Chief Artúr Görgey moved his headquarters to Tóváros, the Szarka
inn, and on May 3 he left for the siege of Buda. On July 25, 1849,
György Klapka, the commander of the Komárom fortress, sent Colonel
Mór Kosztolányi with the 8th Infantry Battalion, a Hussar Regiment
and four cannons to occupy the Tata Castle in the hands of the
enemy. The defenders opened the gate after the third cannon shot and
surrendered. The prisoners, their weapons, their horses and the mail
car, in which they found the plan of the Austrian march, were taken
to Komárom at night.
After the compromise of 1867, the large-scale urbanization of
Tata and Tóváros began, and the construction of smaller factories
(sugar factory, leather factory, steam brick factory, blanket,
cricket and carpet factory) began. Tata-Tóváros was connected to the
railway transport, the railway line connecting Komárom and Budapest
with the station was built in 1883-1884. In the second half of the
19th century, Count Miklós Esterházy built the horse race track in
today's Kertváros and introduced the regular annual horse races in
Tata. The first competition on this track, on September 30, 1886,
was watched by 3-4 thousand guests from Budapest and Vienna. In
addition to the racecourse, the count had a railway station called
Tóvároskert built at his own expense. The benders unanimously
acknowledged that the “Tata lawn” is best suited for the training of
running horses in the country. Between 1867 and 1914, the best-known
stable owners in Tata were: Antal Dreher, Miklós Esterházy and Count
Ferenc, Barons of Harkány, Miklós Szemere, Andor Péchy and Baron
Zsigmond Üchtritz. In addition to the horses, famous English fitters
such as Róbert Adams, János Beeson and Alfréd, Vilmos Maw, György
Hich, Henrik Milne and Róbert Smart were contracted from the 1860s,
who formed a separate English colony in the city and even had an
Anglican church. in the castle. Count Miklós Estánházy (Caunt Niki)
of Tatán built his horse stables, which became famous from the
1860s, from the so-called Swajtzerey (Swiss cowsheds). In 1948, the
horses of the pentathletes (Frigyes Hegedűs and others) preparing
for the London Olympics were also housed here. The castle theater
was built in 1888, where guests were entertained with concerts and
theatrical performances during horse races.
An article in the
great lexicon of Pallas
The great lexicon of Pallas wrote about
the town as follows: (Totis), a pretty and developing large village
in Tatai j., Komárom county, with (1891) 895 houses and 6925,
predominantly Hungarian. (among them 3633 r. cat., 2518 Helvet and
673 Israelites), the office of the district slave judge, the
district court, the royal notary and the tax office, with a monastic
monastery and algimnázium, a railway station, a post office and
telegraph office and a post office savings bank. Tata, with its
large village of Tóváros (4257 inhabitants), is located around a
beautiful large lake, on the latter plane, while Tata itself was
built on a hillside. Between the two villages on the shore of the
lake rises the castle of Count Miklós Esterházy, who died in 1897,
and the old castle; the castle has a rich archive, a collection of
steel engravings and a gallery (with a work by Leonardo da Vinci),
in one of the rooms of the castle was signed by King Francis on 14
October 1809 in Vienna; notable is the ornate theater built in 1889
according to the plans of Ferdinand Fellner and Hermann Hellmer. 140
m is connected to the castle. extensive, beautiful English garden
with Lake Cseke. There are many lukewarm springs in the Tata region,
which also came into combination when supplying water to Budapest,
but could not be taken into account due to their high temperature.
Today, Tata is a popular excursion destination for the capital city;
visited horse races are also organized here and the Esterházy race
stable is notable.
20th century
The theater was demolished
in 1913 by Mrs. Ferenc Esterházy, who feared her son for the
actresses. The theater chairs were placed in the gymnasium of the
grammar school. Between the two world wars, election rallies were
often held in the Lovarda, and theater companies visiting the Tatar
also held performances here. After World War II, the Riding School
was used as a warehouse, and in 1948 it was a gym for the Olympians.
In the mid-1960s, the Tata State Farm established an Equestrian
School in the Riding School. Count Miklós Esterházy also supported
the education of the youth. He built a small grammar school to
accommodate the Piarist grammar school expelled from the convent,
which operated in the area next to today's Eötvös grammar school
from 1892 to 1911, then in Tanoda Square. After the Treaty of
Trianon, in 1921, IV. King Charles and his wife and ministers stayed
in the Esterházy Castle in Tata from October 24 to 26. Between the
two world wars, the urbanization of the two twin villages
accelerated, in 1927 the new town hall of the lake town was
inaugurated.
In 1930, the St. Imre boys' school was handed over to the
students, and in the same year, the convent was handed over in the
Piarist monastery, and finally, in 1943, the Agricultural Folk
School next to the New Road. In 1938, the Patai Museum housed the
Tatai Museum. Tata's healthcare began to develop in 1929. At that
time the village already had an ambulance, and in 1930 in the house
at 32 Esterházy Street (now Ady Endre Street) dr. József Mike, chief
surgeon, opened his sanatorium. The sanatorium was opened by dr. On
the recommendation of József Karnis, he took the name of St.
Elizabeth's Hospital. In the 1920s and 1930s, the meetings of the
representative bodies were loud from the debate over the unification
of the two municipalities. Despite the protest of the Esterházy
estate, the administrative unification of Tata and Tóváros took
place on June 1, 1938. On both sides of the bridge in front of the
Cifra mill, the nameplates of Tata and Tóváros, indicating the
boundaries of the villages, were removed. The Minister of the
Interior established the name of the united large village in
Tatatóváros, which changed to Tata in the early 1940s. After the
German military occupation, from March 19, 1944, restrictive
measures against Jewish citizens also accelerated in Tata. The
ghetto was housed in the 100-meter-long cattle barn of the Tatai
major. Here, 650 Jews living in Tata and the surrounding villages
were gathered, who, on June 6, 1944, accompanied by gendarmes,
walked to the large station, where they were transported to the
Komárom concentration camp. From here they were taken to the
Auschwitz death camp. After World War II, only 38 returned home.
Tata was captured by Russian troops on March 19, 1945, after a
series of bombings in the spring of 1945. The years after 1945,
although great changes were made in the life of the large village,
the development and construction did not start much later, when Tata
was declared a city. On January 31, 1954, Tata, Kazincbarcika,
Keszthely, and Oroszlány were declared administratively cities, and
streets were named after these towns. At that time the population of
the city was 18,205 people.
In 1985, the village of Agostyán
was added.
The city is a military city. The 25th György
Klapka Rifle Brigade can be found in the Tata garrison. He is one of
the two shooting brigades of the Hungarian Armed Forces. Previously,
in 1961, the first stage of the Hungarian People's Army, the 11th
Tank Division of the Hungarian People's Army, was established in the
Klapka György Barracks. The corps ceased to exist in 1986 and was
succeeded by the 1st Mechanized Corps. Following the change of
regime, the higher unit was transformed into the 1st Military
District Command as a peace corps, which was again only liquidated.