The beginnigs

Vértesszőlős is located in Komárom-Esztergom County, at the foot of the Gerecse. The location of the mountain was once occupied by the sea, at the bottom of which accumulated remains of various lime- skeleton animals and have been transformed into limestone during millions of years. The rock-combination later raised, and formed mountains, one part of which is the Gerecse. In the western foreground of the mountain there is the valley of the Által creek, which was created by the capriciously winding river. Our settlement was formed at the meeting  point of these two landscapes. However, the prefix of our settlement bears the name of Vértes, but it has rather a historical tradition. During the Middle ages and Early ages, the village was a part of a large estate, that combined the settlements, situated on the area from Tata to Vértes.

Another linguistic interest is related to the name of the village. Until 1909 we can find the Szöllős and Szőllős forms in the descriptions. This year our village took the Vértes prefix and became Vértesszöllős. Today’s denomination was created after World War II.: Vértesszőlős. In our description the name of our village is always written according to the spelling habits of the given era.

The name of our settlement became known worldwide in the 1960s in scientific circles. At that time, was discovered that collection of finds in our village, which has been a essential part of all informative books, written about caveman. Márton Pécsi played a major role at the beginning of the excavations, who found bone fragments in the quarry during his exploration in 1962, which he showed László Vértes and drew the archeologist’s attention to the site. The scientist arrived in Vértesszőlős in the summer of 1963 and soon found burned bones and stone tools. The next year were found the first bone fragments, originated from humans: the found milk teeth, originated from a child. On August 21 the real great sensation was born: they found the occipital (nape) part of the scull of the Homo erectus. The fame of the artifacts crossed the world: the French and Canadian television reported on it and newspapers wrote about our settlement everywhere. Vértes and his colleagues successfully created those conditions, by which the open air museum was created, which still works in our village today and a lot of students from a lot of schools visit it from all around the country every year.

In later times Vértesszőlős and its surroundings were constantly inhabited. Here lived Celts, Romans, Avars, Moravians, and finally in the 19th century Hungarian tribes moved into the Carpathian Basin. According to legend, near Bánhida, near our settlement, the conquering prince Árpád and Szvatopluk, Moravian prince fought.

The emerging Tata dukedom was usually in the hands of the king. During the century our settlement was formed on the south western slopes of the Gerecse. Right from the start grapes were grown here, and the village got its name according to it. Its first mention in diploma dates back to the time period after Sigismund’s death. The power of László V, a minor, was weak, therefore, his mother, to gather believers around him, pledged the Tata estate for the Rozgonyi family. The King’s diploma was dated 1st May 1440 in Komárom, there we first meet the name of Szöllős.

In 1465, when king Matthias with his army crossed the Danube at Komárom, made a short trip to the surrounding of Tata. Here, however, there was a sad sight in front of his eyes: Sigismund’s former palace and the walls of the estate bear the traces of controversy in the Rozgonyi family. The dukedom began to perish. The king redeemed the estate from the family and flourished Tata and its surrounding again.

After the king’s death the country weakened and the Turks broke into Hungary. In 1543 the Sultan launched a massive campaign against our country. This second campaign completely destroyed those villages that survived the 1529 offensive. One of these was Szöllős, where in 1541 there were four residential areas, according to the records, but two years later they were liquidated by Ahmed Pasha’s Turkish raiders. Although the name of the village was also mentioned in 1552, but then there was a deserted, inhabited area according to the writings. The other settlements of the once flourishing district of Tata also had a similar destiny. From this time the Transdanubian area from Tata to Győr was named by the contemporary people under the name of Győr prairie.

A remarkable story has also survived from Turkish times, which is related to the cave of Rock Mountain, which rises above Tatabánya. And the saying goes this way: one time the Turks wandered around Tata. The villagers, including the inhabitants of Szöllős fled into the cave to escape from the marauders. The entrance was blocked, only a small gap was left, to get the necessary things. Once a woman with a newborn baby went to the river for water. However, the cry of the baby revealed the woman and she was noticed by a Turkish, raiding there. The robber caught the woman, interrogated her, so he knew where the villagers were hiding. He immediately briefed his fellows, who surrounded the cave, made a fire at the entrance and the smoke of it killed those, hiding in the belly of the mountain. The cave is now known as Selim Cave, which was named after the commander of the raiding Turks.

 

 From Rebirth to Fight for Freedom

In 1717 another era of the life of our settlement began. The rebirthing village provided home for serfs, speaking another language. At the beginning of the 18th century the village had several landlords– Krapfok, Gindlk, Jeszenszkyk –and in 1727 József Eszterházy bought the estate. His agents recruited Slovakian-speaking serf families in the Highlands, around Nyitra and Trencsén. At a higher rate then, probably in 1731they settled Szöllős with Slovak settlers from the Highlands.

The settlers soon radically transformed the landscape. The marshes around Tata were drained by them and fish ponds were created at their territories. The pastures were flooded by sheep, which became the most significant source of income for the estate during the century. The trees of the forests were cut, to replace them with arable fields, pastures. The limestone, forming the mountain was also used they got valuable building material from it.

At the end of the 18th century the inhabitants of the village decided to build a church. The construction was completed in 1792 according to the plans of Jakab Fellner. Another building was creatd also at this time, which exists even today: it is an old stone bridge across the Által creek. The bridge was built in 1787-88 by the locals with the help of those living in the surrounding villages.

In 1809 Napoleon’s armies invaded Hungary, after the Battle of Győr they occupied also the  area around Tata. The local inhabitants had to provide with all necessary things the alien armies. The emperor I. Francis himself also fled here from the approaching enemy troops. He gave orders to the technical soldiers of the imperial army to create such ramparts, which can stop the French troops. Such construction took place also in Szöllős. Today only a small hill preserves the memory of the former fortress, and the name of it, because the inhabitants of the village even today call this pat of the village „Rampart”. The fortress was no longer a part of the battle, because Francis I made peace with the French emperor.

After the Napoleonic war ended an economic downturn began in Hungary. At the beginning of the century the land owners only wanted „a long war and quiet autumn rain”, since they were able to sell the wheat grain to the imperial army for good money. With the beginning of peace this blessed situation ceased. Miklós Eszterházy saw the solution not in modernization, but in expanding the homestead land, which was cultivated by the extra work of the serfs, this way it compensated for his lost incomes. Before the revolution a series of feudal constraints regulated the lives of serfs, it was not different nor in the case of Szöllős either. Almost all crops were taxable, thus, the year round work of the serfs also increased the income of the landlord. During the year they had to drudge several days. And while in West Europe the industrial revolution had already been in full swing, which radically changed and modernized  agricultural production, little progress had been made in Hungary. Of course, some progressive large scale landowners perceived the country’s backward position and tried to make a difference. So it is no wander, that the central theme of the parliamentary sessions of the 1830s was the serf issue. Although those involved in the whole political debate did not participate in the decision making process, they realized that there was a big change in the process.

 

 From the War of Independence to the First World War

In March 1848 the revolution broke out in Pest. Soon Lajos Battyhányi, the country’s first prime minister, ordered the promulgation of new laws in the counties. Vienna tried to turn the ethnic minority against the Hungarian people to divide the camp of those standing on the side of the revolution. On September 29th Jellasics was defeated in Pákozd. The news of the event spread like a wildfire, now, the enthusiastic volunteers joined with their masses the National Guard unit. Under the leadership of Pál Eszterházy they left towards the Croatian ban’s army, but they could not rich Jellasics. The imperial commander was now in full swing towards Vienna…

After Vienna succeeded in overcoming the September failure, there was appointed a new commander, Windischgrätz, into the imperial forces, At the end of December the troops of Windischgrätz had already occupied Tata and its surroundings.

In the spring another turn occurred, thanks to the spring campaign, the imperial forces from the country were almost completely displaced. The events were received by great enthusiasm by the inhabitants of Szöllős, led by the parish priest, József  Fieba. After Haynau’s counterattack, inevitably came the retaliation. Fieba, from anticipated prosecution, along with several of his comrades in close-up, tried to find a shelter in the forests of the Vértes, but it was not successful. The parish priest was arrested and brought to the Tribunal in Nagyigmánd. General Susan was very aggressive with the prisoners he ordered immediately to hit all of them with sticks fifty times. The Austrian leadership decided to punish the local leaders of the war of independence in a way to show how cruel they were towards them. That was, what he did in the case of József Fibea, who had been sentenced by the court to eight years of imprisonment in the castle, from which time he spent 3 years in Olmütz. He got grace only at that time.

Although the War of Independence had a bloody end, the many victims were not in vain: the emperor could not ignore the economic development that was in progress in the West. On March 2, 1853, the imperial command was born, which eradicated the medieval conditions in Hungary. The decree ordered the separation of the count and serf lands. Between Szöllős and the landlord, the final contract was sealed and signed on December 7th, 1858.

After a long period of time, the old desire of believers was finally fulfilled and in 1866 a separate parish could be established in the village. Until that time Szöllős was the affiliated church of Bánhida parish. On April 27, 1866, János Simor, the bishop of Győr sanctified the document by signing it, and beginning from that time a separate parish started its operation in the village.

In 1878 the village was hit by a big misfortune: 72 houses burnt in a huge fire, with harvested grain and feed. The temple also fell victim to it the bells fell down from its tower. But, with the sacrificial work of the believers, the tower was rebuilt for the following year and the new bells were also purchased.

The construction of the railway in the field of the village had begun. In 1883 the track was laid down, which connected Budapest, through Bicske – Galla – Tata route to Győr. The first train ran in May next year on the newly laid rails. The local stop was called Szöllős-Hermitage.

There are few personalities, who have done so much for Vértesszőlős, as Ignácz Koltz did, who in the first one and a half decades of the 20th century was the parish priest of the village. He directed with immeasurable energy the spiritual life of the settlement, he research the history and traditions of the settlement, the church and the countryside. The first result of his work was the construction of the cemetery chapel. The opening of it took place in 1904. He began his famous work for a noble purpose, to write the book: „From the Vértesses –feuilleton” the income of which was used to create a fund for building a local primary school.

 

 War, displacement, revolution…

In 1914 World War I broke out. In the war 236 local inhabitants fought, 32 of the died and 7 became war invalids. The names of the fallen were recorded in 1929 on the Hero Memorial, standing in front of the church.

In 1926 the state launched a new development program. More than a thousand schools were opened in the framework of the program. The school of our village was built in 1929.

However, the economic transformation of the region began to loosen and disrupt the hegemony of agricultural work. The Tatabánya mines, opened in 1896, attracted a lot of workmen from Szöllős as well. The same opportunity was offered also by the power plant, built in Bánhida in 1928. At this time the alumina factory was built in Almásfüzitő, which processed the rich bauxite wealth of nearby mountains. The new industrial giants created the commuter layer of Szöllős, who travelled to their workplaces and then, after finishing work, home, by train every day.

In World War II 23 soldiers from Vértesszőlős died heroically. From the end of 1944 to March 1945, the front had passed through the village twice, this is why, many buildings had been damaged and many people lost their lives in battles. In 1944, the parish priest, Zachara Gyula lost his life. The pastor, escaping into the cellar of the house, next to the temple on New Year’s Eve, was seriously injured from mine splitters, lacking binding agent, and a doctor, his condition worsened. He was taken to the hospital in Tata, created in the capuchin seraphic, and after a few days (January 22nd, 1945.) he died of injuries.

In March of 1945, the Soviet attack finally displaced the German forces from Szöllős.

The parish priest remembered the events with the following lines in the chronicle, following the history of the local parish: „It is the 18th of March, 1945. The second front is getting closer. It is Sunday. During the quiet sanctuary, begins the bombing of the village in places, where German cars and horses are placed in the courtyards. Several people died. Some houses were seriously hit. On March 19th the sanctuary has to be interrupted several times, because airplanes again are bombing village in several waves the because of the Germans.

It is the 20th of March, even cannons, set up at the ends of gardens, are operating, the air raid    has been repeated several times because of the German soldiers, being in the village. Here is such a mine attack, that everybody is escaping in the cellar. The Russians are very close already. In the afternoon the first Russian soldiers go by force into the cellars, among them into the priest’s one. Here also are going through many Russian soldiers, cars, lorries and supplies. The Nazi leaders, the chief notary of the village run west. The judge of the village (Péter Forisek) dies from a mine hit. The funerals are carried out quickly and in the simplest way. In the office rooms of the abandoned village house there is a terrible mess, all the documents are scattered. There is a terrible mess in the abandoned house. A mine hit destroyed the door of the temple there is a big pile of wall scrap in front of the door…”

After World War II a great population movement took place in our county. On February 27th a population exchange agreement was concluded between the Hungarian and the Czechoslovak governments. The two states agreed to relocate as many Hungarians from Czechoslovakia, as volunteers, and those inhabitants, who claim to be Slovaks themselves, move from Hungary to our northern neighbor. During the deployment, 427 people moved out of the village, Véretsszőlős, as a result of which, the number of local Slovaks fell from 85 to 55 %.

The Communist Party, supported by the Soviet Union, gained more and more power, and, by the fifties, it transformed the country’s political-economic system, based on a new ideology. Fort he first time, in 1952 the local cooperative was established under the name of Good Luck Agricultural Company. A sad event for giving a name provided the base: on December 30th, 1950, a huge explosion shook the Tatabánya coal mines’ XII section. 88 miners lost their lives in the crash, four inhabitants of Vérteszöllős also fell victims of the accident. In the village cemetery, near the chapel, there is set a special graveyard for them, which is still reminiscent of the big miners’ catastrophe. The first cooperative existed for not a long time: it was broken up by the influence of the ’56 Revolution. After crushing of the revolution on February 20th, 1959, the co-operative was founded for the second time in Vértesszőlős.

 After the change of regime

At the end of the 20th century major changes occurred in world politics. The Eastern European states have been freed from the Soviet rule, in some states the socialism ended peacefully, end elsewhere with revolution. The centrally guided council system also ended in our village, and its place was occupied by the body, elected freely by the community. People were looking forward to the 1991 elections with great expectations and enthusiasm. 40% of the votes were received by Antalné Krenner Mária Nederman so she became the first freely elected mayor of our village. Under her leadership major changes took place in our settlement.

There was a need for great transformations regarding school, since the old building, built in 1929, did not provide enough space any more for the classes. A public tender offered an opportunity for modernization, which provided support for nationality schools, for the expansion of schools and the establishment of classrooms. The new building was handed over in 1993, in which still operates eight classrooms.

At the same time as the school building was created, the construction works regarding building of the health house were also being carried out. Time passed over the old doctor’s office, the Old People’s Daycare House operated in the former house of the party, under unworthy conditions. There were two possibilities: either both of the buildings were separately renovated, or the two institutions were housed in a new building. The body of representatives decided on the latter. They sold the outdated office and the party house and the amount was spent on building a new health house. The equipment of the dentist’s office was created from ten million forints, won by tender. The three storey building today hosts several institutions: at its lower level there is the Old People’s Daycare House, in the middle part, there is the general practitioner’s office, at the loft the dentist’s office and the municipal library have been operating.

One of the burning problems of the village road network was also waiting for sorting out: without using the road No 100, it was not possible of getting from one part of the village to the other one. The solution could have been the purchase of an old farmhouse behind the church, by demolition of which a contact road was planned to be built. Then the idea arouse to form a country hose from the old building. Under the guidance of Mária Kutenics, the inhabitants of the village gathered the fixture objects, which testify the peasant world of old ages. The connecting road was built also next to the country house.

The village football field was also created on a new place. The HSR modernized the railway, they straightened the track in Szőlős by cutting off a turn, not used for a long time and being redundant. The company expropriated the affected area from the municipality on which a football field was situating with a building. The need for a new, modern sports facility arose in the minds of the village’s sport enthusiasts. There were several possibilities, and finally they choose the plow field, behind the Old Grapes, where the sports park can still be found today. At that time a public tender for the construction of a school gymnasium was announced. The body of representatives applied for the grant successfully, so not only the necessary changing rooms were created, but the village also got a modern sports hall.

In 1994 István Vida was elected mayor in the village, and it did not happen otherwise in 1998 and 2002 either. Our settlement, according to the country’s main political direction, set off on the road that led to Europe again. During all these, village built a closer relationship with two settlements, situated beyond the borders: with Turany in Slovakia and Muhr am See in Germany.

The two relationships developed almost at the same time. Szőlős and Turany started cooperation on cultural ground: first the Turany Cultural Association came up with great success in Szőlős, then the local female choir and folk dance group took part in a program in Slovakia. Meetings between the residents of the two settlements became regular, many families formulated friendly relationships. The brotherhood between the two settlements was recorded in writing in 1997.

Muhr am See, a small German town, near Nuremberg, became a part of the Vértesszőlős  story in the 1990s. The son of our homeland, living abroad, József Barta, urged to create a contact, and he worked with great enthusiasm to nurture it. At first 15 children travelled there to a friendly football match, but in 2001, 40 schoolchildren had been able to spend ten days in summer in Germany. The next year a German children group was from Muhr am See was a guest of our settlement. As a result of the two reunions, the inhabitants of the two settlements became friends. In 2003 the two settlements recorded the twin relationship in writing. The ceremonial signature took place in the framework of the traditionally held vine harvesting ball. The contract was signed by the two mayors, Roland Fitzner on the German side, and István Vida on the Szőlős side.

Nowadays

The period from 1990 is a real success story in the life of Vértesszőlős. After the change of regime, a new system of democratic self-government emerged and then the favorable state financing conditions had unleashed huge energy in the local community. This willingness to work had been fruitful through hard work to achieve the set goals. Many civil organizations and foundations were created, tradition created cultural events were launched, sparkling community life has emerged, which is based on the values of the past and the local nationality traditions.

Between 1990 and 1994 the settlement was enriched with several newly built public institutions: a sports hall and football field, a new school building, a health house, a pharmacy have been built. In the next decade the development continued with the construction of Country House, by building a mortuary and renovating roads. After joining the EU in 2004, from 2006 onwards, the EU development funds, more significant than the previous ones, provided new impetus to the development of Vértesszőlős.

In a few years, nearly half of the local roads were renovated. Almost every public institution has been renewed (community house, mayor’s office, primary school, health house, pharmacy) public spaces have evolved the village has become more aesthetic and tidy. In 2012 the long waited bicycle rout between the center of Vértesszőlős settlement and Tatabánya was built, which made the developing zone, the Skála region more accessible.

In addition to preserving the values of the past, the aim of the municipality is to operate a sustainable, cozy and attractive settlement in the future. To this end, generally going in front of the majority, it has been doing everything in order to ensure economical, rational management and operation.

An important goal is to develop local public education and support foreign language education (Slovak, English German). The primary school was enriched with a new building, we also succeeded in renovating the courtyard, and therefore, the material conditions of quality work are ensured. It has been almost ten years since the body of representatives of Vértesszőlős decided to replace the already out-of-date kindergarten and crèche by building a new, modern building, where several kindergarten children’s groups can be accommodated. In order to implement the project, the body of representatives submitted a tender in 2016. Designing a building, that meets current legislations and needs today has begun, which can accommodate 5 preschool and 2 nursery groups, and at the same time we submitted an application in the framework of the TOP-1.4.1-15 call, to obtain county level resources for being able to implement the project. Within the framework of the tender our settlement received a HUF 150 million non-refundable grant, supplemented by municipal self-financing, to cover the total investment cost of nearly HUF 450 million, which includes, in addition to construct the building, the cost of ensuring the equipment and creating the playground. On August 31st, 2018, the new Samufalvi Kindergarten and Nursery School building was opened in a ceremonial way, which started their operation with 5 kindergarten-and 2 nursery groups, with 125 kindergarten-aged and 24 crèche -aged children.

Innovative operation, making maximum use of tender resources, priority support of local public education, maintaining aesthetic living environment, quality public services, regular contact with local economic operators, the strengthening of local communities together serve to make the population of our settlement feel that the village belongs to them and to ensure that the families in the long run find the conditions for their success in Vértesszőlős.

 Another unique archeological findings in the fields of  Vértesszőlős

In 2009, in the field of the village, bordering with Tatabánya a businessman started his investment in a territory of about four hectares, but when the machines worked just a few tens of centimeters below the surface, bumped to stone. In the neighborhood it is not an unusual „obstacle”, however slowly it became evident, that there were the parts of a wall. The area of the builders was taken over at this time by the archeologists.

There is almost no archeological or historical period, the memory material of which would not be found in the territory of the village. Among these the territory between the main road, crossing the village, and the Által creek, is prominent, where archeological finds can be traced back to the foot of Gerecse. By preventive explorations, started in 2005 and 2009, there were provided new extremely exciting data to the phase of the Bronze Age history of the Carpathian Basin, which had only been known regarding its outlined section (explorations of Gabriella A, Pál, Julianna Cseh Kisné).

In the course of the excavations, huge stone circles, stone chambers, next to them pits, dug into the ground, foundations of stone buildings, the remains of partially dug buildings, ditches, stoves and their traces were excavated. And a lot of finds. Ceramic fragments, bone,-bronze,-iron tools, animal bones, money…Over 27000 items were counted during primary processing, all of them are memorial materials of the everyday lives and the dead cults of the people who used to live here.

The memorial material of several periods was found here. Ceramics, rich in lime inserted decorations, anthropomorphic (of human shape) and anchor-shaped bronze jewelry and dress decorations, dress pins, the memorial material of the culture of Transdanubian lime inserted dishes, the smaller cemetery stock of which was already  excavated by Éva V. Vadász and  Gábor Vékony in the ’70s. Then a fragment of another tomb was found on a plot north of our excavation as a result of a trial excavation carried out by János László (2008). The period is the Bronze Age, according to the traditional chronological classification, in the 18th -16th centuries BC.

From this period, the only anthropomorphic clasp of the North-Eastern Transdanubian region has emerged here, but it is also unique, that besides the cemetery, consisting of several grave groups, there were found together jewelry and traces, indicating settlement. The remaining parts of tombs, of smaller, bigger dimensions, constructed from stone blocks, found next to/under the Roman era building wreckages, scattered on a huge territory, making the works very slow and complicated, caused a much bigger surprise than the above mentioned situation caused. As if we were in the dolmen world, in the excavations site sin England, Ireland or France, even if, cue to the lime stone, which can be got here from mines, on a different scale, i.e. of much smaller sizes.

Not little effort had to be made by the inhabitants, living here, to mine out the large stone blocks and to transport them here. First the stone chamber, in which the tomb was situated, was built, where their dead were buried according to their own rituals (the inhabitants, living here used the already mentioned cremation ritual, while those who immigrated here, used the skeleton one). Usually a mug was placed next to the grave and then, after the funeral fist, its remaining parts were also thrown into the grave hole, in which there had already been the closed tomb chamber. The whole of it was covered by a huge dirt pile, and to keep the pile more secure, it was surrounded by a double series of stones. However, the function of these stone series were not only to support the pile. One pile could be a cemetery for a family, because, under the stone circles, where we managed to break it down, new tombs appeared. It is not a coincidence, the naming of the culture: Heap-Grave-Culture. Until now this cemetery section is unique in Hungary, it is a real archeological sensation, their closest parallels can be found, but not a lot of them, in Slovakia and Austria, the processing of the findings can help clarify their exact relationship.

All this is supplemented with 5 buildings, so far explored, as a part of the mansion of probably a very rich ex-serviceman.

In the area of Vértesszőlős we can discover the traces of the Roman era man in many places, in the area of the village and the area around it, the mostly the unexplored sites refer to intensive settling in that era. The proximity of Brigeto, one of the most important centers in the province of Pannonia (in the area of today’s Szőny), explains the many colony phenomena. A part of the site on the banks of creek Álmos might already be destroyed when the railway was built, but the areal photos and archaeological excavations in the adjacent area can be used to draw its expansion.

The main building of the adjacent Roman era mansion farm is located in the neighboring area, mentioned above, next to it, several heap graves can also be detected in the areal photography. Fragments of weapons (e.g. bronze sword wear, belt buckles, arrowheads, spearheads), finds of lead casting workshop (deteriorated lead votive, i.e. votive gift, weights) and also an iron ring, decorated with engraved gem, a lot of bronze money, bronze fibulas, casket-and furniture curbing, lanterns, luxury ceramics, fragments of window glasses and pottery were found. It is a must to list a fraction of a larger black bowl, decorated with black heads, similar to that not known yet among Pannonia’s memories. Already, during exploration it became clear, that the residence, with wall paintings, floor heating, and fence, had been used in at least two periods: its first phase ended in the first half of the 3rd century, the flowering of the second phase can be estimated to be in the 4th century.

In the Roman age, i.e. AD, in the first centuries a climate optimum is supposed to be, it means that the weather was very mild. In fact, from this time period can be observed increased destruction of forests, and in some areas, drainage (i.e. soil-site conversion) could already have taken place. The pollen ration of the grain and its accompanying weeds also show the spread of agricultural culture. The iron tool, finding, found on the other bank of creek Által (at the border of Vértesszőlős and Tatabánya) refer to the intensive agricultural and industrial activity, in the finding there are in addition to agricultural tools, tools for textiles, jewelry making, blacksmithing, and woodworking.

Going along the bank of creek Által, beside the mansion, probably there was the stone road, leading towards Brigetio, traces of which were registered by Gábor Vékony in the late 1960s.

Even after the Roman era, this area not remained uninhabited, in the age of migrations, traces of German tribes can be detected, some tombs, along with several ceramic fragments, an intact grain storage vessel, found in a renewed Roman stone building refer to it.

In the 10th century, the marshy floodplain of the creek Által was once again the first populated area. From the end of the 8th century to the 13th-14th centuries we can also assume a climatic pick, the medieval optimum period, is typically, over the Roman site, partly to the north from it, towards the hillside, we can find the dwellings of Árpád-era men dug in the ground, open air furnaces, and in many places the tombs of those who lived here were excavated.

Between Vértesszőlős and Gerecse, the road from Buda went along the Által creek, even in the Middle Ages. The war conditions in the Turkish era depopulated the villages, which were situated on the way of the army. That is what happened to Szőlős as well in 1541 there were four tax payer properties according to the census two years later it became a destroyed, deserted wilderness.

And why is this cultural richness in such a small area? Perhaps, beside the ideal way of settling provided by water, forest, the road, that has already been mentioned several times and the water crossing can provide the explanation, its eastern and western sides (Bánhida) stand out with their rich archeological material.

Kisné Julianna Cseh, archeologist-historian, chief museologist, Tatabánya Museum.