The Double Church of Nagyszékely Traditional Geocache
The Double Church of Nagyszékely
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I would like to show you an architectural rarity with this hide. There is nothing like this anywhere in Hungary - maybe not even in Europe.
A geoláda a geocaching.hu oldalon GCNSZ név alatt szerepel. Ha ott is be szeretnéd jelenteni a megtalálásodat, kérlek, ne feledkezz el a jelszóról! This cache is also available on geocaching.hu under the name GCNSZ.
How to get there?
There is only one road leading to Nagyszékely, from the direction of Pincehely.
You can park next to the church garden.
The History of the Churches
This unique church of Nagyszékely is the only protestant church in Hungary that was created by the fusion of two buildings.
The ancient, smaller church was built in the 13th century. Standing all by itself on the top of the hill until the beginning of the 18th century. It was alternately used by the protestants congregations of the indigenous Hungarian villagers and the German settlers who arrived in the early years of the 1700s. By the beginning of the 1800s the growing German congregation asked permission to build a larger church, but their request was turned down. This is when the current unique solution was born. The sanctum of the old church was torn down and a new building was erected in squarish angle by 1801. Even now this is the largest protestant church of Tolna county.
It is an impressive view from the center of the village as the two church towers reach above the trees toward the sky.
The Short History of Nagyszékely
Nagyszékely is one the villages with the richest history of the Tolna county's Hegyhát region.
It is a know fact that there was a flourishing village here with its own church in the medieval times.
During the Turkish times the village was abandoned, as many other settlements in those years.
After the expulsion of the Turks, at the beginning of the 18th century, the squires of the area recruited settlers from German territories. Protestant families arrived to Nagyszékely from Hessen province. Soon they established a school, built a church and revived the village in every aspect. For more thn two hundred years they were mostly farming, grew grapes, kept animals. Besides the peasants there were a substantial number of craftsmen: smiths, coach-builders, weavers, carpenters. There was mill, pharmacy, doctor's office, veterinarian, and even a guesthouse that had an important role in the social life of the village.
At the heydays, at the turn of the last century, the village had nearly 2200 inhabitants - compared to its current 400. The Schwobe houses so characteristic of the village's streets were built at about that time.
The economic changes following the first world war resulted in the decrease of the number of inhabitants in the 1920s, but the dramatic change was caused by the expulsion of the German ethnic group after the second world war, in 1946. The old village community, even families were broken up, old traditions and customs vanished. In the 1960s the majority of the young people moved to larger towns. For several years the village was getting older and poorer.
This tendency, though slowly, seems to be changing in the last few years. Townfolks moved in and they, together with more and more young locals plan to live their lives here, in spite of the hardship.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Zntargvp crgyvat