Small Hungarian Plain

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Little Hungarian Plain (Pannonian Plain)
Red pog.svg

The Little Hungarian Plain ( Hungarian Kisalföld ) is a lowland in the Pannonian Basin in Hungary , Slovakia and Austria . Like the Great Hungarian Plain, it is also part of the Eurasian steppe belt , a large vegetation zone . The altitude of the plain is about 110 to 150 m above sea level. Adriatic .

Surname

The lowland is also called the Small Hungarian Lowland . In the national languages, the names are Kisalföld (Hungarian) and Malá dunajská kotlina (Slovak).

The name of this geographic and cultural-historical large region was coined in the 18th century to distinguish it from the Great Hungarian Plain (Alföld) in the Carpathian Basin of eastern Hungary.

location

Small Hungarian Plain, Hungarian part

The Small Hungarian Plain (Kisalföld) has an area of ​​8000 km², which extends mainly in northwestern Hungary and southwestern Slovakia . Smaller parts also affect eastern Austria ( Vienna Basin , the Eastern Styrian hill country and the Seewinkel ).

The approximately 80 km by 100 km area is enclosed by the polygon of the following cities:

Natural space

Landscape classification

Geomorphologically, the lowland (Kisalföld) is bounded by the following units:

The similarly scenic Slovakian Danube lowlands north of the Danube, bounded by the cities of Bratislava, Nitra and Komárno, are however historically and culturally different and bears the Slavic name Ostrov (island).

The Little Hungarian Plain is part of the Pannonian Plain . It is separated from its eastern part, the Great Hungarian Plain, by the Hungarian low mountain range between Lake Balaton and the Danube Bend .

geology

Geologically, the lowlands represent a large sedimentary basin in the subsidence area (sinking weak zone of the earth's crust ) between the eastern edge of the Alps and the Carpathian Mountains or the Bakony Forest, which has been filled with marine and fluvial sediments over the last 20 million years . The pre-tertiary basin floor is up to eight kilometers deep, as geophysical studies ( gravimetry , seismics ) and the interpretation of the strong vertical deviations of the area have shown.

climate

There is the continental climate of the temperate zone . This is characterized by very warm and dry summers and cold, more humid winters.

Waters

Characteristic of the little wooded sedimentary basins are the parallel, withdrawing to the northeast tributaries of the Danube, the largest consisting of Styria coming Raab (Rába) is. The area in the east of Lake Neusiedl , the Seewinkel, and the drained peat bog (nature reserve) of the Waasen ( Hanság ) are usually included in the Small Hungarian Plain . They drain through the Einser Canal (Hansági főcsatorna) to the Raab.

The Neusiedler See is the largest (but very shallow) lake in the lowlands with a beginning steppe character.

The rivers determine the internal structure of the region:

For bulk region and the north of the Danube located in Slovakia belongs Danube lowland with the Zobor -region and mat country in the lower reaches of the Slovak Vah (Vah) , where it flows into the Danube.

history

Ancient and Middle Ages

The Roman province of Pannonia consisted of the Little Hungarian Plain and extended to the Danube and in the south to the Save . After that it was settled by Germanic, Slavic and Avar peoples. The Little Hungarian Plain has been one of the most important, coherent settlement areas for the Hungarian population since the 10th and 11th centuries - the establishment of the state by the Magyars who immigrated from the east . Up to the 14th century, the dense network of villages (mostly row villages ) was connected to the network of free royal cities and feudal market communities. Important ecclesiastical centers were Győr (city of Raab), Pannonhalma and Nyitra . The oldest administrative unit was the Raab (Győr) county , which was surrounded by the historically somewhat younger counties Ödenburg (Sopron), Wieselburg (Moson), Pressburg (Pozsony) and Komorn (Komárom).

Population and village development

The central area of ​​the Little Hungarian Plain became one of the most important economic and cultural regions of Hungary around 1500, because it opens like a "gate to the Carpathian Basin" to the northeast - through the " Hainburger Pforte" up the Danube to Central and Western Europe. The abode and culture of the serfs were similar to those of the great lowlands (Alföld).

German immigrants settled in the west as early as the 13th century, to whom Croats later came. In Wieselburg County, the German population made up the majority until the end of the 19th century.

The north-west of the Little Hungarian Plain was largely spared from the devastation of the Turkish wars in the 16th to 17th centuries, not least because of the two unsuccessful Turkish sieges of Vienna . This sub-region was also largely spared the later struggles for independence. In contrast, the destruction around Győr and Komárom was much stronger. Therefore, in the 18th century, immigrants were recruited from the Great Hungarian Plain, 200 kilometers to the east, and from the southeast ( Transdanubia ). These Hungarian settlers founded u. a. Weinberg settlements in the hill country of Sokoró . The settlement network, which was still functioning in the Middle Ages, was able to stabilize increasingly until around 1800 and expanded to around 500 villages - with an average distance of only three to four kilometers.

The gentry of from about 1000 to Christianity converted Magyars turned after the Reformation partly the Protestantism too, especially in the counties of Sopron and Raab. However, the rural population remained loyal to the Catholic orientation or, in the Counter-Reformation, largely returned to the Roman Catholic Church.

Development of agriculture and industry

Economically, the development is based on a balance between arable farming (wheat, rye, barley) and intensive cattle breeding (cattle, horses, sheep), which was a result of the relatively free use of pastures and meadows . The homesteads of the serfs produced marketable products despite their ties to feudalism . The economy was promoted by the craftsmen's guilds , especially when they had quick, convenient access to the markets of Austria , Moravia and, in part, Bohemia . Today's Slovakia was an integral part of the Hungarian kingdom anyway .

In terms of the density of villages and market towns, the Kisalföld was the most developed region in Hungary. The population was multi-faceted, however, in relation to the upper class : Here an increasing urbanization , there a strict landlord - farmer relationship, and in between the middle class the Meierhof residents. They were from about 1800 to independent farmers or landowners , of which the Guts workers lived locally separated.

In the 19th century a large scale was regulation of rivers carried out, with the river engineering at the Raab and the Hanság - bog was drained. Because of the good soil quality , half of the areas could be turned into arable land , a quarter into meadows and pastures. Szigetköz and Rábaköz developed into supra-regional granaries , and the production of hay was exported to Pressburg and Vienna in addition to local cattle breeding .

Later, the arable farmers switched from two-year farming to alternating field farming and purchased agricultural machinery . Local machine factories such as Bokor and Kühne contributed significantly to the mechanization , so that by 1900 all the larger farms owned plows, harrows and seeders. The merger to form agricultural cooperatives also took place relatively early .

Trade and industry in the Little Hungarian Plain were naturally concentrated in the cities, while in the countryside the water mills developed into agricultural processing plants. Larger companies were a. the pottery of Győr and the United carpentry of Komárom whose techniques fertilized and small businesses. In addition, there was the importance of the nearby Danube and its transport function, especially for Győr. After Austria was cereal and salt geschifft, on the way back, however, iron , ore and timber .

See also

Sources, web links

  • Alpine Gravimetry Symposia 1990–93 (geology and geophysics)
  • Research reports of the IGG Sopron (geography and geology)
  • Magyarország (Topographic and Traffic Map 1: 200,000), Marco Polo Verlag

Coordinates: 47 ° 45 '  N , 17 ° 20'  E