Development in the settlement structure of Villány from the 18th century to our day

Abstract

Villány (Baranya County, Hungary) is a dynamically developing small town today, with its centuries-old viticulture and winemaking traditions, along with the tourism built upon them, providing significant resources for its growth. In stark contrast, however, its population has shown a dramatic decline over the past three decades, losing nearly one-third of its residents. It may be worthwhile to examine one element of Villány's distinctive development: the factors that have influenced its current settlement structure and the contradictions that have shaped its evolution.

The study attempts to showcase the changes in the settlement structure of the small town of Villány from the first half of the 18th century to the early 21st century. The medieval settlement, built on Roman antecedents, was revived as a Serbian, and from the mid-18th century, a German majority settler-village after the Ottoman occupation. At this time, the settlement was organized around the medieval-origin road, as well as the Serbian Orthodox and the similarly medieval founded Catholic church, with manorial economic facilities concentrated in the northern part of the village. This structure was completed in the mid-19th century as viticulture became a leading sector. Family farms built their press-houses on the southern outskirts of the village, while the town center housed villas of wine merchants, as well as office buildings, educational institutions, inns, shops and – interspersed among the residential areas – wineries and other industrial facilities. During the decades of socialism, alongside a significant population increase, a more conscious urban development concept was implemented. Cultural, educational, and tourism facilities were located on the main street, new industrial plants were placed on the outskirts, and residential-recreational areas, which constituted a large part of the settlement, were segmented by house types and social groups. This concept loosened by the end of the era, with emerging viticultural and tourism private enterprises developing interspersed within residential areas, operating in a manner that disturbed the inhabitants. Partly due to this and partly due to the unbalanced employment structure, the population of the settlement began to decline rapidly. Since the turn of the millennium, the declared goal of the municipality has been to reconcile the interests of tourism and the local population, which the largest urban development initiatives aimed to serve: the construction of the Event Space and the bypass road, the revitalization of public spaces, and the development of public services. However, it remains an open question whether these will be sufficient to halt the increasingly noticeable population decline.

In terms of methodology, the work is connected to the Hungarian traditions of settlement morphology. The argumentation is based on five monographs and several smaller studies about the settlement. As primary sources, the author used cartographic documents, statistical surveys, archival records, press materials, as well as street and address directories.