Várpalota (before 1870 only Palota, in some works: V. Palota) is a town in Veszprém county, Várpalota district. Várpalota is located in Transdanubia, on the eastern edge of Veszprém county. In terms of population, it is the fourth most populated settlement in the county. It is located 90 kilometers from Budapest, halfway between two county capitals, Székesfehérvár and Veszprém, at the foot of the Bakony, barely 30 kilometers from Lake Balaton.
Evidence of the presence of the Romans is the stone
dam erected by them - next to the main road No. 8 in the direction
of Öskü - and in the direction of Székesfehérvár, on the border of
Inota, by the two restored mound graves. The stone monuments can be
seen in the stone storehouse of the castle.
Middle Ages
The most remarkable monument of the Middle Ages is the medieval
castle in the center of the town, built in the 14th century and then
rebuilt several times over the centuries. In Turkish times, the
Palace was an important royal border fortress, its most famous
defender, György Thury, is also mentioned by Miklós Zrínyi in his
work Island Peril. The Gothic-style Inota Catholic Church was also
built in the Middle Ages.
New Age
Description of the
settlement at the end of the 18th century:
Palace: Hungarian
Field-City in Veszprém County, landed Lords Count Zichy Lords,
adorned with ‘whose old castle and new kies castle’ s candle. The
Castle of Hajdani, which Miklós Újlaky had begun to build, suffered
from various vicissitudes, performed by 'like' Historians. In
addition to these notable buildings, this ‘City’ is also adorned
with a beautiful stone-built Holy Church by the earthly Lords, whose
location and building provide another ornament to this city. Its
inhabitants are Catholics, Reformed, Evangelicals, as well as Jews,
it lies on the Country Road below Bőrhegy, 2 1/2 mile to Veszprém, 2
mile to Fejérvár, in a rather cheerful place, it has a post office,
its border is divided into two sections, and , nevertheless produces
both autumn and spring crops, and in particular the fact that pure
wheat with a stronger pasta does not grow in the whole County than
here, its forest is rich in game, its vineyards produce good wine,
it also has two cobs. Being a peculiar source of warm water in
winter, it drives two incessantly rotating mills with its flow. Here
is also the ‘famous Lake Kikiri, the source of which is considered
to be bottomless, and which rotates many mills with a continuous
flow; its water was, in the old days, maintained by a dam carved out
of large carved stones, it provided a very large fishy and birdish
Lake; but already being drained today, only the ‘flow of wealth is
yet, and the‘ bush ’has turned into meadows. From here, the ‘famous
Muddy’s’ also takes on its own origins.
(András Vályi:
Description of the Hungarian Country, 1796–1799)
In the 18th
century, the settlement developed into a thriving market town. This
is evidenced by the Baroque churches in the city center and the
renovated Zichy Chapel in the lower town cemetery. To the west of
the city's main square, behind the Catholic church, the Zichy Castle
was built according to the plans of Miklós Ybl, which was later
rebuilt in the Classicist style.
The town’s significant
Jewish population erected a classicist-style synagogue in the city
center in the 1840s. The city had a significant craft industry in
the 18th century. A 18-19. In the 16th century, the market town of
Palota was famous for its limestones, honeymooners, vargaas and tutu
makers. In the 19th century, in addition to the Jews, there were
several Greek and Armenian merchants in the city.
At the end
of the 19th century, the city began to develop significantly. Here,
coal mining is worth mentioning, because the settlement of just a
few thousand people was not very important in terms of agriculture,
and the industrial body still employed a small layer. Mining at
Várpalota began in 1876, at least this is considered the date of
commencement of coal production, whereas more serious extraction
began in 1886.
The first half of the 20th century
With the
advent of coal mining in the early 20th century, significant
industrial development began.
However, the population of
Várpalota has been steadily declining since its peak in 1836 until
1920 (4964 inhabitants). This was generally not true for Hungarian
settlements, because the Treaty of Trianon mostly had a detrimental
effect on the country, but the fate of Várpalota was fortunate
during and after the war for several reasons:
- the front did not
pass through its territory,
- as the country has lost its carbon
bases (Caraș-Severin Basin, etc.), palace coal has become more
valuable,
- the country also lost its chemical plants, several of
which were built in the area (Pétfürdő, Balatonfűzfő, Peremarton.)
Coal mining
In 1903, there was a significant change in the
production direction of early mining. Coal mining fell from the
hands of Vladimir Zichy to Henrik Witzleben, a relative of the
Prussian emperor. But this only affected the upper lordship in
addition to the tenure prevailing at the time, the lower lordship
falling into the hands of the Wolf brothers. The inferiority was
purchased in 1908 by Count Witzleben. The count brought a new spirit
to the coal mining of the palace, brought German miners as well, and
made mining more professional and profitable. Evidence of this is,
among other things, the German (es) adjectives found in the
vocabulary of the miners who learned their craft during these years.
These words later mostly fall out of the vocabulary of young people
and use Hungarian terms in the following times.
Under Witzleben, workers' earnings improved. As the wells in the
lower town became depleted at this time, it introduces the water of
the Windward Spring into the town. In 1904 he built a brick factory
and a lime kiln, which in 1909 he installed for generator firing. In
1907, he founded the Várpalotai Ipartelepek R.T., but the majority
of the shares remain in his hands. In order to make better use of
the extracted coal, he established a briquette factory in 1914. His
investments consumed large sums of money, but his actions led to the
development of more modern, capitalist mining in the Palace.
Witzleben sold his shares in 1919, the customers were the Vienna
Deposition Bank, the Hungarian National Bank, and the City and
Municipal Development RT, which created the Union Mining and
Industrial RT, which benefited from the electrification of the
castle palace, which began in 1915, because part of the low-value
2,200-calorie lignite was tied up by the Power Plant as a regular
consumer.
After 1920, there was a temporary shortage of coal
in the country, so for the first time in its history, palace coal
could be sold outside the city limits due to demand. The direct
consequence of this is that in 1923 the Esztergom-Szászvári R.T.,
and then its successor, the Salgótarján Coal Mine R.T. also became
involved in mining. But in 1926, as a result of the world economic
crisis, demand for coal fell again. The Bánhida power plant also
switched to the use of better quality coal, so the palace coal
market was almost exclusively limited to residential consumption. In
this R.T. its leaders helped by acquiring the Füzfő factory and its
associate, the Nitrochemical Industrial Plants, for the market. Due
to this, the volume of coal mining in crisis more than doubled by
1929 (129,000 tons) compared to 1928 (129,000 tons).
However,
the increase in production did not stop, in fact! In 1930 it was
already 163,060 tons, and in 1932 251,000 tons of coal was
extracted. Of course, this was greatly contributed to by the fact
that in 1929 the coal classifier came into operation, and
Fleissner's hydration equipment for dewatering raw coal began
production; the water content is approx. It decreased from 46% to
18-20% and the caloric value increased from 2000-2200 to 4000-4200.
Thus, hydrated coal has already become competitive in the fuel
market. In order to expand the market, the combustion equipment of
quite a few Transdanubian mills was replaced by intake gas engines
suitable for the use of hydrated coal in the palace.
The
beginnings of the chemical industry
The Péti Nitrogénművek has
been operating since 1931–1932. Lignite from Várpalota played a
major role in its installation, providing energy for
energy-intensive chemical processes. The plant and the hydration
plant were connected by a cableway, and from then on Nitrogénművek
became the main, safest consumer of coal. The next big boost came
from the government's 1938 program in Győr, which indirectly
increased the demand for electricity within the country. (The Győr
program was, in fact, a state-initiated program that launched a
state of war and benefited most industries.)
Coal mining
continued to flourish in the boom, which peaked in 1942 (710,000
tons), but as the front approached, the Axis powers lost their luck,
coal production also declined, and 1944 was the last year when
production was still pre-war markets.
A II. destruction of
world war
In the Second World War, the front passed through the
entire territory of Hungary, including Várpalota. The devastation
was enormous, with several serious causes. Fearing the last source
of oil, the wells of Zala, the Germans concentrated a strong army in
the area and launched a counterattack, which became known as the
Battle of Lake Balaton. So the front not only crossed, but also
raged here in the area for six weeks. This in itself had serious
consequences, but perhaps no less weight was given to the Péti
chemical plant, which at that time still produced motor propellants,
and the plant also had an oil refinery, which the Germans wanted to
protect at all costs for the reasons mentioned above.
In
1945, the Second World War ended on March 21 in Várpalota.
Unfortunately, the city was unlucky: 3/4 of the city’s buildings
became prey to the war. The same applies to the then two largest
plants of the city, the mining plants of Salgótarján Kőszénbánya RT
in Várpalota, as well as the nitrogen fertilizer factory (as well as
the oil refinery facilities) located in the Pétfürdő district.
The second half of the 20th century
The first activity of the post-war reconstruction was the tidying
up of the three industrial facilities described above, the start of
production. The then state leadership decided to build a coal-based
thermal power plant in the Inota district based on the lignite
assets of the Várpalota mine, and then to build an aluminum smelter
in the immediate vicinity of the power plant based on the Hungarian
bauxite treasure. This industrial vertical also produced a very
significant production value at the national level, already in the
1950s. Subsequent industrial developments played a major role in the
expansion and modernization of existing factories.
Industrial
production between the sixties and eighties
From the end of the
1960s, oil refining ceased and was replaced by experimental
“semi-plants” that played a significant role in the technical
development of the country, such as NAKI (High Pressure Experimental
Institute), MÁFKI (Hungarian Petroleum Research Institute), etc. In
the early 1970s, the large-scale expansion of Nitrogénművek met the
fertilizer needs of growing Hungarian agriculture. Coal production
was increased by opening new mines and by playing a pioneering role
in the country in this field by automating and mechanizing
underground coal production. In addition to the mines, adult plants,
whose products were used from China to England, played a significant
role in automation and mine shield production. At the Inota thermal
power plant, a so-called a peak power plant, which quickly replaced
the lost energy in the event of a breakdown in the national
electricity system, and also played a significant role in the safe
operation of the Paks nuclear power plant. During the operation of
the thermal power plant, the increased protection of the environment
also came to the fore from the 1980s, which is why the boilers were
equipped with dust filter filters. In addition to the metallurgical
activity, the Inota Aluminum Smelter produced semi-finished aluminum
products in its newly built plants. It is necessary to mention that
the National Geological Research and Drilling Company was
established in Várpalota to meet the needs of Hungarian coal mining,
which operated on three continents during its development. In the
shadow of large companies, several cooperatives and companies that
help to serve these activities with special products also operated
successfully. The economic position of these companies serving and
assisting each other was shaken by the late 1980s due to the
weakening market position of coal mining.
The crisis of the
city after the change of regime
The heyday of the city’s economy
gradually ended from 1989. The development of the city stagnated or
regressed after the change of regime in the 1990s.
The
foundation of the superimposed industrial structure, the gradual
decline of the coal mine, abandoned deep cultivation on October 1,
1992; one or two smaller, near-surface coal lenses were still mined
to meet the needs of the thermal power plant. For the region, this
meant that, along with the service companies, about four and a half
thousand jobs were lost in and around the city. Some of the mine's
service plants (control technology, shield manufacturing,
construction, transportation, etc.) were still able to provide jobs
for their employees, but the lack of capital forced the owners to be
liquidated by the end of 2004.
Among the plants of the Inota
district, the fate of the Thermal Power Plant was sealed by the
closure of the Várpalota mine. It was operated for a while with coal
from other mines (Balinka, Ajka), then the owner closed the power
plant in 2001. The peak power plant part did not meet the conditions
prescribed in the Western European electricity standard, and
therefore it was withdrawn from standby and production when the
Liter peak power plant was completed. It currently operates as a
power distributor only.
The aluminum smelter in Inota became
privately owned and is the headquarters of one of the major public
limited companies in the country under the name Magyar Alumínium RT.
Aluminum metallurgy is expected to cease despite improvements.
Anticipating these processes, RT's management has set up a large
industrial park next to the smelter with several plants. These
plants operate in a profile related to aluminum processing, such as
alloy disc production, aircraft parts, and so on. The site will
continue to produce semi-finished and finished products after the
completion of the aluminum smelting in Inota.
Not only the strong redevelopment of mining, which characterizes
Várpalota, also sentenced the National Geological Survey to cease.
During this four- to five-year process, it ceased to co-exist with
the industrial estate of the palace district. Hundreds of job losses
have been reported in the district due to the destruction and
cessation of related activities such as bus passenger transport,
rail coal transport, restaurants, laundries, etc. To this day, an
industrial park has been established in the palace district, which
has reacted to the changing economic climate with a decade of delay.
The chemical plants of the Pétfürdő district also suffered from
the economic effects of the change of regime. The Péti Nitrogénművek
was liquidated by the state owner, but the factory was first sold to
quasi-private owners and then to actual private owners. After a
significant reduction in headcount, production first stagnated and
then began to develop with the entry of a new private owner. At
present, the factory is implementing an investment worth
approximately HUF 18 billion. Once the investments are completed,
the fertilizer plant will be one of the two most modern in Europe.
The experimental institutes were set up in the early 1990s by
Nitroil R.T. merged under their name, their profiles cleaned up. The
joint-stock company is incorporated under the auspices of Hunstman
R.T. bought it.
Greater progress has been made in the city
alone at the communal level. With the support of the Empire of
Japan, the so-called a Japanese program that sought to eliminate the
harmful effects of industrial developments for the benefit of the
population. By the end of 1998, healthy drinking water, complete
sewerage, and complete heating of buildings with either gas or
district heating were available on all inland plots in the city of
Várpalota.
The unit of the city of Várpalota disintegrated on
October 1, 1997, the part of Pétfürdő that lost the least
economically during the change of regime, became independent, called
Pétfürdő.