Törökbálint is a town in Pest county,

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 ...

. Törökbálint received town status on 1 July 2007. The city also has a German name, ''Großturwall'', which originates from the times of the

Swabia Swabia ; , colloquially ''Schwabenland'' or ''Ländle''; archaic English also Suabia or Svebia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany. The name is ultimately derived from the medieval Duchy of Swabia, one of ...

n immigration after the Ottoman times of Hungary.

Geographic position

Törökbálint is c. westwards from

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

, between Diósd and Budakeszi, which were also Swabian settlements. Törökbálint can be directly approached from the motorways M0, M1 and M7.

History

Early history

Until the 1st century, the Avaric peoples were the inhabitants of Hungary, which the Romans chased away. Both nations left their footprint over the entirety of Hungary, and in Törökbálint as well, though the region was uninhabited until the 6th century, well after the Roman invasion. The

Germanic tribes The Germanic peoples were tribal groups who lived in Northern Europe in Classical antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. In modern scholarship, they typically include not only the Roman-era ''Germani'' who lived in both ''Germania'' and parts ...

settled around this time. After the Magyar settlement in the 9th century, the main leader of the Hungarians,

Árpád Árpád (; 845 – 907) was the head of the confederation of the Magyar tribes at the turn of the 9th and 10th centuries. He might have been either the sacred ruler or '' kende'' of the Hungarians, or their military leader or '' g ...

, gave the lands around the present Törökbálint to prince Kond, whose son, Csörsz built the first castle in the area. Its name was Torbágy (''Turobag''), which is probably the ancient form of the present German name of the settlement. Only in the early modern age, c. the 16th century, was the village renamed to Török-Bálint, with a Hungarian landlord and poet, Bálint Török (in Hungarian form Török Bálint) giving the name to it.

16th to 19th centuries

In the 16th century, the lands around Törökbálint were given to the

Jesuits The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

, who built a number of buildings in

Baroque style The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from the early 17th century until the 1750s. It followed Renaissance art and Mannerism and preceded the Rococo (i ...

. They possessed the lands until 1773. By this time, the area was hardly inhabited, which was partly the result of the

Turkish wars A series of military conflicts between the Ottoman Empire and various European states took place from the Late Middle Ages up through the early 20th century. The earliest conflicts began during the Byzantine–Ottoman wars, waged in Anatolia in ...

two hundred years before. In the 18th century, the first

Danube Swabians The Danube Swabians ( ) is a collective term for the ethnic German-speaking population who lived in the Kingdom of Hungary in east-central Europe, especially in the Danube River valley, first in the 12th century, and in greater numbers in the 17 ...

began to arrive. The latter became the major population group in the area in a few decades. After the order of the Jesuits was dissolved,

Maria Theresa Maria Theresa (Maria Theresia Walburga Amalia Christina; 13 May 1717 – 29 November 1780) was the ruler of the Habsburg monarchy from 1740 until her death in 1780, and the only woman to hold the position suo jure, in her own right. She was the ...

, the ''Kaiserin'' of Austria and Queen of Hungary gave the lands to Josef Majláth, her chamber counselor. The first transportation contact with the capital,

was established in 1884 with the opening of a railway.

Recent history

In 1900, the township obtained a new name. Instead of Török-Bálint, the name Törökbálint became official. The next important step in the development of the settlement was the opening of the suburban railway, in 1912, which was, however, closed after

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the Danube Swabians, who had been living there for hundreds of years, were expelled from Hungary. Nowadays, Törökbálint is part of the suburban Budapest. More and more people move to the township, which has a very calm and peaceful atmosphere. Tükörhegy (mirror hill or ''Spiegelberg'' in German), an area in the outskirts of Törökbálint, a former

orchard An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit tree, fruit- or nut (fruit), nut-producing trees that are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also so ...

, has been, for instance, almost fully built in. In the outskirts of Törökbálint,

multinational companies A multinational corporation (MNC; also called a multinational enterprise (MNE), transnational enterprise (TNE), transnational corporation (TNC), international corporation, or stateless corporation, is a corporate organization that owns and cont ...

, like Cora and

Telenor Telenor ASA ( or ) is a Norwegian majority state-owned multinational telecommunications company headquartered at Fornebu in Bærum, close to Oslo. It is one of the world's largest mobile telecommunications companies with operations worldwi ...

give work for many inhabitants of the settlement.

Twin towns – sister cities

Törökbálint is twinned with: * Bük, Hungary * Odorheiu Secuiesc, Romania * Soroksár (Budapest), Hungary *

Süßen Süßen (or Süssen) is a town in the district of Göppingen in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. It is located on the river Fils 8 km east of Göppingen, near Stuttgart. History Süßen was first mentioned with the name of ''Siezun'' ...

, Germany * Veľké Trakany, Slovakia

Main sights

* Walla castle * Lung sanatorium, which was the former castle of the

* Calvary-row * The Roman Catholic Church, which was first mentioned in 1422 * The historic building of the Ignác Zimándy School * The Calvinistic Church, which was built 1994 in partnership with the German town of Süßen * Village Museum

Notable residents

* Imre Menyhay, Hungarian- Austrian economist * György Pásztor, Ice hockey player,

Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary The Hungarian Order of Merit () is the fourth highest Order (honour), State Order of Hungary. Founded in 1991, the order is a revival of an original order founded in 1946 and abolished in 1949. Its origins, however, can be traced to the Order of ...

* Zoltán Takács, Hungarian musician

References

External links

Street map (Hungarian)

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Torokbalint Populated places in Pest County