Zsámbék
Encyclopedia
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
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Zsámbék is located 30 km west of BudapestBudapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
along the M1
M1 motorway (Hungary)
The M1 motorway is a long highway in northwestern Hungary, connecting Budapest to Győr and Vienna. The first section of the motorway opened in the 1970s, reaching the Austrian border at Hegyeshalom in 1996. It follows the route of the old Route 1 one-lane highway.- Junctions, exits and rest areas...
motorway in the Gerecse Mountains. Its neighbouring villages are Tök, Perbál
Perbál
Perbál is a village in Pest county, Budapest metropolitan area, Hungary. It has a population of 2,233 .-References:...
, Páty
Páty
Páty is a village in Pest county, Budapest metropolitan area, Hungary. It has a population of 6,411 .-References:...
, Herceghalom
Herceghalom
Herceghalom is a village in Pest county, Budapest metropolitan area, Hungary. It has a population of 3,511 .- External links :...
, Mány
Mány
- External links :*...
, Bicske
Bicske
Bicske is a town in Fejér county, Hungary.-History:According to a document dating from 1306, Botond’s sons János and Péter were granted the permission to levy toll in the locality of Bicske as well. Bicske was written Bykche, Biccke, Bykcze, Biczke, Bitske ...
, and Szomor.
History
Zsámbék has been inhabited since PaleolithicPaleolithic
The Paleolithic Age, Era or Period, is a prehistoric period of human history distinguished by the development of the most primitive stone tools discovered , and covers roughly 99% of human technological prehistory...
times. It has seen Celtic, Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
and Avarian populations throughout its history, according to archaeological finds. A Celtic mail coach's remains were found there as well as a bronze trumpet.
In the 1050s the wife of Béla III of Hungary
Béla III of Hungary
Béla III was King of Hungary and Croatia . He was educated in the court of the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I who was planning to ensure his succession in the Byzantine Empire till the birth of his own son...
, who was the sister of the French king, gave the village to a knight named Aynard. The Aynard family built the Premonstratensian
Premonstratensian
The Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré, also known as the Premonstratensians, the Norbertines, or in Britain and Ireland as the White Canons , are a Catholic religious order of canons regular founded at Prémontré near Laon in 1120 by Saint Norbert, who later became Archbishop of Magdeburg...
church beginning in 1220.
The church was destroyed in 1241 during the Mongolian invasions. Following the destruction, during the reign of Béla IV of Hungary
Béla IV of Hungary
Béla IV , King of Hungary and of Croatia , duke of Styria 1254–58. One of the most famous kings of Hungary, he distinguished himself through his policy of strengthening of the royal power following the example of his grandfather Bela III, and by the rebuilding Hungary after the catastrophe of the...
, the church and monastery were rebuilt. Positioned at an important merchant route — halfway between Esztergom
Esztergom
Esztergom , is a city in northern Hungary, 46 km north-west of the capital Budapest. It lies in Komárom-Esztergom county, on the right bank of the river Danube, which forms the border with Slovakia there....
and Székesfehérvár
Székesfehérvár
Székesfehérvár is a city in central Hungary and is the 9th largest in the country. Located around southwest of Budapest. It is inhabited by 101,973 people , with 136,995 in the Székesfehérvár Subregion. The city is the centre of Fejér county and the regional centre of Central Transdanubia...
and near Buda — the village underwent rapid growth.
In 1467 Mathias Corvinus granted the rights of an oppidium. He also gave the fortress to his son, Corvin János.
In 1541, Turkish troops occupied the fortress and held it for 145 years. During this occupation, they also built a Turkish bath, the ruins of which are still visible in the village.
In 1686 general Bottyán János fought there against the Turks. Later the Zichy
Zichy
Zichy , the name of a noble Magyar family, conspicuous in Hungarian history from the latter part of the 13th century onwards.-Brief history of the Zichy:...
family became the landowners of the region. They then rebuilt the castle.
An earthquake in 1763 ruined the church once again. It was not reconstructed after this horrific event. Settlers from Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, who came to live in the abandoned village after the Turkish occupation, took the stones from the church and used them for building houses and fences. Many of the church's stones are still present in the walls of older houses.