Balatonszepezd
Encyclopedia
Balatonszepezd is a village in Veszprém county
Veszprém (county)
Veszprém is the name of an administrative county in Hungary. Veszprém is also the name of the capital city of Veszprém county.-Veszprém county:...

, Hungary
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...

, on the northern shore of the Balaton
Lake Balaton
Lake Balaton is a freshwater lake in the Transdanubian region of Hungary. It is the largest lake in Central Europe, and one of its foremost tourist destinations. As Hungary is landlocked , Lake Balaton is often affectionately called the "Hungarian Sea"...

.

History

Balatonszepezd was first settled in the 13th century as a fishing village. It was first the domain of royal steward
Steward (office)
A steward is an official who is appointed by the legal ruling monarch to represent him or her in a country, and may have a mandate to govern it in his or her name; in the latter case, it roughly corresponds with the position of governor or deputy...

s, then of local noble
Nobility
Nobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary. The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be...

s, and later on the bishop of Veszprém
Veszprém
Veszprém is one of the oldest urban areas in Hungary, and a city with county rights. It lies approximately north of the Lake Balaton. It is the administrative center of the county of the same name.-Location:...

 and the Benedictine
Benedictine
Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...

 abbey
Abbey
An abbey is a Catholic monastery or convent, under the authority of an Abbot or an Abbess, who serves as the spiritual father or mother of the community.The term can also refer to an establishment which has long ceased to function as an abbey,...

 at Somogyvár
Somogyvár
Somogyvár is a village in Somogy county, Hungary.It is situated south from Lengyeltóti, between Lengyeltóti, Öreglak andSomogyvámos.- History :...

. The old Roman Catholic church was built during this period. As a result of the Turkish invasion
Ottoman-Hungarian Wars
The Ottoman-Hungarian War refers to a series of battles between the Ottoman Empire and the medieval Kingdom of Hungary. Following the Byzantine civil war, the Ottoman capture of Gallipoli and the decisive Battle of Kosovo, the Ottoman Empire seemed poised to conquer the whole of the Balkans...

, it was almost completely destroyed; after the war, it was repopulated primarily by German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

s. The village continued to grow and by the 18th century it was home to another two churches of Calvinist and Lutheran denomination
Christian denomination
A Christian denomination is an identifiable religious body under a common name, structure, and doctrine within Christianity. In the Orthodox tradition, Churches are divided often along ethnic and linguistic lines, into separate churches and traditions. Technically, divisions between one group and...

, respectively.

By the 19th century, the village was already a popular holiday destination, but mostly for artists and writers from the relatively nearby towns of Révfülöp
Révfülöp
Révfülöp is a town in Veszprém county, Hungary, located on the northern shore of the Balaton. Révfülöp is well-known as the starting point for an annual long-distance swimming race across the Balaton to Balatonboglár.-Etymology:...

 and Balatonboglár
Balatonboglár
Balatonboglár, in Hungary, is a resort town situated on the south shore of Lake Balaton. It is the professional centre of the Balatonboglár Wine Region, and is often called the "town of grapes and wine."-History:...

. However, the efforts of Pál Nagy and Vince Viriusz, coupled with the village's connection to the national railroad system during the early 20th century, soon brought visitors and tourists from all over the country and from abroad. Two distinct new neighborhoods, Szepezdfürdõ and Viriusztelep, developed on either side of the old village center with the influx of vacationers and their lake houses. At the same time, the permanent local population decreased due to urbanization
Urbanization
Urbanization, urbanisation or urban drift is the physical growth of urban areas as a result of global change. The United Nations projected that half of the world's population would live in urban areas at the end of 2008....

.

Today, the smallish village continues to serve as a holiday spot. The main sources of work are tourism
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...

 and viticulture
Viticulture
Viticulture is the science, production and study of grapes which deals with the series of events that occur in the vineyard. When the grapes are used for winemaking, it is also known as viniculture...

. Notable historic sites within the village are the buildings on the main street, Árpád street, and the vicinity, which are built in the eclectic
Eclecticism in art
Eclecticism is a kind of mixed style in the fine arts: "the borrowing of a variety of styles from different sources and combining them" . Significantly, Eclecticism hardly ever constituted a specific style in art: it is characterized by the fact that it was not a particular style...

 and baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

styles, and the three old churches.

External links

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