Lábatlan
Attractions
Gerenday Communal House and Arboretum
Gerenday Communal House and Arboretum is waiting for its visitors in centre of Lábatlan along the main road number 10. The building which is surrounded by a 2,02 ha park was the Gerenday family’s property from 1847 and they chose Piszke as a family residence. Gerenday Antal had concerns at the red marble mine in the mountains of Gerecse and formed a stone-cutter workshop in Piszke.
The Gerenday monument and building-matter warehouse was a leading company at that time and he employed 150 people. Later on the company was moved to Pest. They made tombs for our home land’s famous men for example Kisfaludy Károly, Vörösmarty Mihály, Kölcsey Ferenc, Garai János. Besides the tombs they also made memorial plaques and public statues. Gerenday Antal organized the structure of landing pier himself because this way he could easily transported the marble to Pest by sea. They rebuilt the buildings of Piszke works into living-house for the growing family. Gerenday Antal had 8 children. In the middle of the village they formed group of buildings which was mention as Gerenday mansion in the Piszke postcards, too. The buildings were finished at the beginning of the 1900’s.
At that time the typically civil wing in Eszterházy-sytle was finished which was the family’s popular residence summer time. The family took part actively in culture and public life. In 1864 they built a Calvary behind the church. Then in 1868 Gerenday Antal formed the Piszke-Karva reading-club which represented for gentlemen and a club existed until the end of the Second World War. The building belonged to the family till 1990 when Machine and Part Factory of Lábatlan bought the proprietary rights form the Gerenday family. Then in 1999 the local goverment bought the territory and took over the keys with all solemnity from Lukácsy András, who is of the family inheritor. They had the remained furnishings, furniture and paintings of the mancion restored which can be seem in Communal House.
The restored furniture and paintings (family portrays) can seem aristocratic a bit for the visitors altough the family was a hard-working, open-minded, particular and successful one.
Other Cultural Sights
The reformed monument church - It was built in the place of the Árpád-era church in the fourteenth to fifteenth century, with a single-nave, gothic window and gate construct. It took its present form in 1894. The Sarlós Graced Parish Church of Piszke – It was built in 1900; the Kálvária Hill with the red marble statues of Piszke is located above it. The Gerenday Mansion and the locally protected, nearly 2 acres large Gerenday Garden are both located in the town center, which also functions as the cultural center of the town. The famous, traditional summer blues festival is also held here.
The rows of wine cellars of the previously flourishing vine cultivation of Lábatlan – The old and new wine cellars and wine press houses of Öreghegy and Kamberek are fantastic sights of the region.
History
The town located at the foot of Gerecse was created by the unification of Lábatlan and Piszke villages. Piszke has been inhabited since the Neolithic Age; the first mention of Lábatlan was in a certificate of merit in 1267. Numerous legends try to prove the origins of its name: according to traditions, its name comes from a valiant called George the Legless (Lábatlan György), who lost one of his limbs in combat, and he may have been the firs landowner in the region. There is, however, another version which says that here lived a legless hermit. One thing we know for sure about the history of the parish is that it used to be the ancient land of the Zovard Clan, and that it is one of the most ancient villages of Hungary.
Lábatlan gained ’city’ rank in 2004.
The origin of Piszke village is possibly Slavic; its first mention in a certificate of merit was in 1300, where it was referred to as ‘Pyzke’. During the Turkish Subjection of Hungary Piszke was abandoned, and it was only in the eighteenth century that German settlers arrived here. The two parts of the town changed owners on several occasions during their history. Among the owners were the Lábatlan, the Nedeczky, the Reviczky and the Gerenday Families.
In the eighteenth century the population of Lábatlan and Piszke dealt mainly with grape cultivation and transportation, and marble mining. The region is rich in stone habitats as well: the Pisznice red marbles, the red and white limestone of Süttő have all gained wide recognition. The stones have been used at several famous Hungarian buildings: the Parlament, The Mathias Church, The Fishermen’s Bastillon, the Bakócz Chapel of Esztergom and the Belvedere Palace in Vienna. The first factory foundation in Piszke was done by the Gerenday Family, who mined red marbles from the local mines which was processed at the sites in Piszke and Budapest. Antal Gerenday was the one who built the first port in Piszke, where even the ships from Vienna made a stop. In its place, the new port of Lábatlan was built. In the second half of the eighteenth century flourishing vine culture evolved in both villages which were well-known for their white wines. Nowadays, grape cultivation is once again at its peak.
Today, Lábatlan is part of the Ászár-Neszmélyi Vine Region. The features of this vine region favor the light, acidic, comely white wine production. The wines of the region are great with salads, vegetables and fish. The Portland cement production of Hungary started with the foundation of the Lábatlan factory in the nineteenth century.