Vác (Slovak: Vacov, German: Waitzen, Latin: Vacium, Italian: Vaccia, Serbian: Вац) is a city in the Budapest agglomeration, Pest county, on the left bank of the Danube; is the seat of the Vác district. Known as the center of the Danube Bend, the settlement is the fifth most populous city in Pest County, and at the same time an attractive tourist destination - on the one hand due to its millennial history and on the other hand due to its rich cultural life. Catholic episcopal seat, center of the diocese of Vác.
In historical Hungary, the city, which is the border
of the Highlands, lies in the Danube Bend, on the left bank of the
Danube River, at the foot of the Naszály.
The Danube greatly
influences the atmosphere of the city. In the downtown area, a
landscaped area has been created on the shore, and the suburban
shore, despite the ban, is filled with hundreds of beachgoers on
warm days.
While on the opposite shore the extensions of
Pilis continue all the way to the Buda Hills, Naszály is the closing
member of the last ranges of the Carpathians across Hungary, so to
the north of Vác there are mountains and to the south a flat
landscape.
Historic districts
Due to the city’s nearly
1,000-year history, it can be divided into several parts of the city
and there are also areas within them that have been named
separately.
Lower town: Luxembourg, Burgundy
Downtown: Tabán
Kisvác: Kraków, Limbus, School City (Szérűskert), Stone Bridge, Buki
Deákvár: Bed, Garden city, Törökhegy, Bácska, Papvölgy, Old Town,
Lajostelep, Altány, Brick house, Szentmihály
Derecske: Liget,
Csatamező, Kisderecske
Hermann
Mária-liget/ Mary's grove
Sejce
The origin of his name
Today, most linguists
consider the city name to be a place name derived from a personal
name. According to the legend described in the Vienna Picture
Chronicle, in 1074, when Prince Géza and László visited here before
the battle to determine the Hungarian order of succession, the area
was covered with forest, in which a hermit named Vác lived, and the
city would have been named after him. . The word “vac” also emerged
as a Slavic term meaning a more important settlement and center.
Middle Ages
Due to its favorable conditions, the area has
been inhabited for thousands of years. Even during the conquest, it
was a settlement on the site of today's Vác. The first written
mention of Vác dates back to 1074, when the yearbook of the town of
Yburg in Lower Saxony speaks of the town as Watzenburg. The founding
letter of the Garamszentbenedek abbey dates from 1075, in which the
town is named Wac civitas.
The foundations of the bishopric
of Vác were laid by King Stephen I, yet the bishopric is considered
to be the foundation of Géza I. From then on, the church played a
significant role in the life of the city. The bishop of all time was
the landlord of the city, and through the present high priestly
court, the city was considered architecturally and culturally
important from the beginning.
In the Middle Ages, next to the
waterfront, the castle of Vác was built on a prominent part. It was
also needed, as the city was at the center of historical Hungary, so
it was often affected by important military events. This was also
the case during the Tartar invasion in 1241, when the Mongols,
together with the people seeking security there, burned down the
castle church and the buildings of the episcopal court. After the
departure of the Tartars IV. Béla invited settlers from the southern
German countryside to the depopulated ruins, who settled north of
the former center, around today's main square of the city and built
a parish church, institutions and dwellings dedicated to St. Michael
according to their own traditions.
A 14–15. In the 16th
century, the famous humanist bishop Miklós Báthory brought peace to
the city: he invited sculptors, painters and architects to Vác. The
peaceful prosperity came to an end with the Turkish invasion: the
city was besieged several times by both parties, but eventually fell
into Turkish hands, although between 1595 and 1620 Vác was in
Christian hands, it was not liberated permanently until 1686. The
army of the castle in Ottoman hands was mostly Bosnian, and the
population of the town was Hungarian-majority and Reformed
throughout. Pál Bolgár, a lawyer from Buda Bornemissza, a lawyer of
the distant bishops, played a significant role in the survival of
the Hungarian population.
New Age
Reconstruction was also
hindered during the Rákóczi War of Independence by the Labanc-Rác
devastation and the fire of 1731, so today's Baroque town could only
develop in the second half of the 18th century. As a result of the
proliferation of violent counter-Reformation, in the 18th century
the bishop banned the free practice of religion by non-Catholics,
which led to the expulsion of the Reformed population: the Reformed
settlers established a serf settlement called Kisvác, now part of
the city. The bishops settled a Roman Catholic German population, a
Slavic clergy, in their place.
Meanwhile, the city began to
develop vigorously: the dominant bishops of the second half of the
18th century (Antal Kristóf Migazzi and Mihály Althann) continuously
developed the city. The Chapel of St. Roch was erected to stop the
devastating plague in the early 1940s, the construction of the
Piarist Church was completed by 1745, and the Church of the
Dominican Order was built by 1755, which the people named the White
Church after its users. . In 1764, Maria Theresa personally visited
Vác, in whose honor Vác was the only triumphal arch in the country.
However, the queen accepted the gift with suspicion, so when she
visited, she did not dare to drive under the Stone Gate, she avoided
it with her carriage. The Franciscan Church, also known as the
Treasury of Vác, was built in 1766, and the construction of today's
bishop's palace was completed by 1772, and anyone can find the name
of Kristóf Migazzi by researching the sanctuary of the Vác
Cathedral.
In the 19th century, the city began to industrialize, with guilds
being replaced by manufactories and then factories. In 1846, the
first Hungarian railway line connecting Vác with Pest was opened,
but the merchants of Vác were not as enthusiastic as Petőfi, for
example, because the fast connection with the big city brought about
a reduction in local trade.
The two great battles of the War
of Independence of 1848-49 took place in Vác, which are commemorated
at the southern gate of the city, near the Seven Chapels. Following
the compromise, by the turn of the century, bourgeoisification had
begun, with sports clubs, self-education circles, and a thriving
local press.
20.century
In 1939, after the occupation of
Poland, more than a hundred thousand Polish refugees arrived in
Hungary, many of them in Vác. There was a Polish orphanage in the
town, and many Polish Jewish adults and children took refuge here.
At the end of World War II, Vác suffered severe damage and was
occupied by the Soviet army on December 8, 1944.
After the
two world wars of the 20th century, by the 1950s, the structure of
the city had changed: the ecclesiastical institutional system, which
had been the backbone of the city until then, was forcibly pushed
into the background by the state, taking control of the main
institutions. Housing estates were built to serve the swelling
population (workers arrived at the newly founded mine). Vác was part
of Pest-Pilis-Solt-Kiskun county until 1950, when the counties were
transformed into counties.
After the regime change
Since
the change of regime, the role of the church has grown again. Jobs
lost due to the downsizing of the industry provided an opportunity
for the city to regenerate. Through the church, higher education
reappeared and the properties returned to church ownership were also
renovated.
In the early 1990s, a priest found 18th-century
mummies and beautifully painted coffins in a forgotten cellar under
the White Church. The find is unique in the world, the corpses have
been preserved in an incredibly good condition in the environment
created in the crypt. Studies have shown that some of the dead were
resistant to various fatal diseases in their lifetime (presumably
through a gene mutation).
In 2006, the rebuilt, beautified
March 15 square was handed over.