Ráckeve
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Ráckeve is a town on Csepel Island in Hungary. It is situated in the Pest County.
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[edit] Name
The Name of Ráckeve in todays form derives from the Hungarian words rác and keve.
Rác is a name formerly used in Hungarian to designate South Slavic peoples (Serbs, Bunjevci, Šokci) who lived in the Pannonian plain during Hungarian, Ottoman, and Habsburg administration. Because many of them originated from the medieval Serbian state of Rascia, they were named after this state. Since the mid-nineteenth century the name was used almost exclusively for the Serbs and with a derogative meaning. The town gained this name because of the large Serb population that lived in it.
There is a theory that word keve is of Hun origin. Keve was one of the leaders of Attila, fighting troughout Europe in the 4th century.
The word Keve has also been a personal name among Hungarians, due to the traditional theories among Hungarians on Hun-Hungarian historical relations.
"Keve" also meant little stone, or pebble, in pre-modern Hungarian.
In Serbian, the town is known as Mali Kovin / Мали Ковин, Gornji Kovin / Горњи Ковин, Rac Kovin / Рац Ковин, or Srpski Kovin / Српски Ковин. Serbian names Mali Kovin ("little Kovin") and Gornji Kovin ("upper Kovin") were used in contrast with the name of town in modern Serbia that is also known as Kovin in Serbian and Keve in Hungarian.
[edit] History
After the Árpád dynasty was established, the region of today's Ráckeve belonged to the Hungarian king.
In the Middle Ages, there was a settlement here called Ábrahámtelke, and also a monastery built in the 12th century, mentioned in official document in 1212 the first time.
In the 15th century many Serb refugees came from the South, fleeing the invasions of the Ottoman Turks. In this time, the settlement was called Kiskeue, that is to say "Kiskeve" in modern Hungarian. Kiskeve means "Little Keve" in English, and the Serbs in the town called it Mali Kovin, or Gornji Kovin ("upper Kovin") in contrast with the name of other Kovin (Donji Kovin / "lower Kovin") in the South, where the Serbs fled from.
In the 16th century, Ráckeve was respectable mercantile town. The Calvinist variant of Reformation was spred in the town by Szegedi Kis István.
In 1541, the town fell under Ottoman rule, and most of its population fled towards North. Many Serbs, who used to live in the town settled in Győr and Komárom. Those who stayed in the town elected a "duke" called Đurđe (1543-6). In 1567, the town was populated by (mostly Calvinist) Hungarians and Serbs.
When the region was freed from the Turks, the Habsburgs gave Ráckeve to Prince Eugene of Savoy. New settlers arrived to the town mostly from Austria and Germany. Since then the town had three major ethnic groups: Hungarians, Serbs, and Germans.
In 1984, Ráckeve was given again the official status of a town.
[edit] Sights
Ráckeve is famous about the only Gothic style Serb Orthodox Church in Hungary from the 15th century.
The Catholic church was designed by Pataki László. The Fresco-secco in the church is worth seeing.
The Calvinist church is built in neo-gothic style in 1913.
There is the Savoyai Castle in the town, built in baroque style in 1702-1750.
There is also an Árpád Museum.
[edit] References
- Dr. Dušan J. Popović, Srbi u Vojvodini, knjige 1-3, Novi Sad, 1990.
[edit] External links
