Kercseliget ( or ; ) is a village in
Somogy County
Somogy (, ; ; , ) is an administrative county (Counties of Hungary, comitatus or ''vármegye'') in present Hungary, and also in the former Kingdom of Hungary.
Somogy County lies in south-western Hungary, on the border with Croatia's Koprivnica- ...
, southern
Hungary
Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...
.
The settlement is part of the
Balatonboglár wine region
The Balatonboglár wine region, also known as the South Balaton wine region, is the only one wine region in Somogy County, Hungary. The area consists of 37 settlements, mainly located on the southern shore of Lake Balaton, but also some near Kap ...
.
A Balatonboglári borvidék hegyközségi tanácsának alapszabálya (PDF)
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Etymology
There are two theories about the name of the settlement. According to the first one the German residents started to call their village ''Gartenchen'' and ''Parkchen'' which were translated into Hungarian as ''kertecske'' () and ''ligetecske'' (). According to other sources the name derives from the Hungarian person name ''Kercse'' which was added to the second part of the name of the village (''liget'') which means ''park'' in Hungarian.
Geography
It lies at the meeting point of the three counties: Tolna, Baranya and Somogy.
History
It was first mentioned in 1332 without a name. During the Turkish occupation it became uninhabited. In the 18th century Kristóf Nitzky bought the land and invited the Roman Catholic German settlers to Kercseliget. The ''Madarász'' and Hunyadi family
The House of Hunyadi was one of the most powerful noble families in the Kingdom of Hungary during the 15th century. A member of the family, Matthias Corvinus, was King of Hungary from 1458 until 1490, King of Bohemia (ruling in Moravia, Low ...
acquired lands there during that time. Later in 1859 the Maár and Pallavicini Pallavicini () is a surname from Northwest Italy, derived from a medieval given name. Notable people with the name include:
* the following members of the noble Pallavicini family:
** Agostino Pallavicini (1577–1649), Doge of Genoa and King of Co ...
families had land near the settlement. Early Kercseliget had a developed industry with a brick factory and weekly market.
Main sights
* ''Maár Mansion'' (built at the beginning of the 19th century in Classicist style
Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for a classical period, classical antiquity in the Western tradition, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. In its purest form, classicism is an aesthe ...
)
* Roman Catholic Church (built in 1770, rebuilt in 1895)
* ''Maár Chateau'' in ''Bükkpuszta'' (part of Kercseliget)
* ''Kercseligeti Gyöngyszemek'' Gypsie folklore band of the village
* ''Traditional Choir of Kercseliget''
External links
Street map (Hungarian)
References
Populated places in Somogy County
{{Somogy-geo-stub