Csopak

Maybe the most competent person to describe Csopak and its Riviera is the great geologist and geographer, Lajos Lóczy (1849-1920) who owned a summer villa on the western edge of the village and who directed and coordinated more than 60 scientists working on the scientific survey of Lake Balaton and its region for 28 years.

This wonderful landscape drew many prehistoric, migrating peoples of ancient times to settle on the Csopak Riviera. The area is rich in springs and carbonated waters, and provides a good living, so that the relics of peoples from the Copper Age to the Hungarian Conquest can be found everywhere.

Csopak and Balatonkövesd are also important archaeological sites for the prehistoric and migration periods. Lőce Hill, north of the railway station, was inhabited in the 10th and 11th centuries, as remains unearthed in 1910 demonstrate. Csopak featured as 'Chopok' in a deed of exchange dated 1277. Kövesd is first mentioned in a royal grant of 1121 as 'Cust' or 'Cuest'. Part of Csopak seems to have been donated by the king to the Chapter of Veszprém, while Kövesd was owned by laymen in the 14th century, but later passed to the Chapter as well. Both villages were almost deserted during the ottoman period. Csopak was let to Tihany Castle in the second half of the 16th century, and later to Veszprém Castle, but it returned to its original owners in 1615. The remains of Csopak's medieval St Stephen's Church can be seen at the north end of the main street, Kossuth Lajos utca. It had been destroyed, but was rebuilt at some time in the 17th or 18th century, only to fall into ruins again by the mid-19th century. All that stands now is part of the tower.

Halfway up Kossuth Lajos utca stand the ruins of a small chapel in Romanesque style. Although it lacks a roof, it is in generally good repair. This was the chapel of Kövesd, dedicated to St Nicholas, and first mentioned it in a surviving document dates of 1363. There is another Roman site of importance in the upper Nosztori Valley, where the now vanished village of Nosztori or Nosztre was situated. The karst spring at the north end of Nosztori Valley is the source of the Séd Brook, whose babbling waters once drove several water mills. Along with the vineyards, a royal possession in the Árpád period of the early Middle Ages, these mills played an important part in the local economy. One of the Roman remains found at 'Sarcophagus Hill' is of a wine cellar, one of several pieces of evidence that Balaton was a wine district back in ancient times. The way of life, costumes and cottages of the Csopak Riviera underwent little change down the centuries. The main occupations were arable farming, stockbreeding, vineyard and orchard cultivation, and fishing in Lake Balaton.

Several mansions and vineyard-owners' houses were built on the vine-clad hillsides in the last century, and many of these survive. Two important ones are the vinedresser's house on the Ranolder vineyard, and the charming Budai Villa on the Balatonfüred road. In the main streets of both villages you can see several 19th-century peasant houses of a great value.
Kövesd Reformed Church, impressive in size, was completed in 1800 in copf style. Another notable building from the first half of the last century is the Eőry Mansion, built in Neoclassical style and later enlarged.

One natural asset that is still neglected is St Joseph's Spring, built at the end of the 1920s, over a source of natural aerated water.

Bathing and the related holiday trade began to develop in these parts in the early 19th century. This was Hungary's Age of Reform, when the rising middle class and the patriotic nobility began to seek out the beautiful districts of Hungary. They also encouraged others to visit, arguing there was no need to go abroad in the summer to bathe, with the gorgeous Balaton district on the doorstep. By building holiday homes there, people could also contribute to the district's financial and cultural prosperity. The popularity of Csopak as a middle-class family resort dates back to the early years of the 20th century. The summer homes built between 1910 and 1940 developed into a 'resort', even though Csopak did not have a proper beach for a long time. Bathing before 1922 meant that those who had a vineyard or a summer cottage went to the shore at Kerekes Meadow.

In the 1970s and 1980s, state-owned concerns and cooperatives began building large 'company holiday centres' resembling hotels, and there was a rush of private holiday-home building as well. The resulting surge in the number of visitors brought financial stability to the community, and turned the holiday trade into the population's main source of income and turned the holiday trade into the population's main source of income. Csopak in the 1990s has become capable of accommodating several thousand visitors in several hundred private homes and in the big holiday centres and hotels. The beauty of this historic district of excellent wines, the broad range of hospitality, the excellent programs offered by the travel agencies, and the sights to be seen have turned thousands at home and abroad into fans of Csopak. They have become visitors who repeatedly return, and we hope that those who read this book will do the same.

A modern school was provided in the 1980s, and at last, after a wait of a hundred years, the Catholic congregation managed to build their fine church. Csopak today has many urban features. Apart from the fine beach and several big hotels for holidaymakers, there has been a great increase in the number of families offering private accommodation. The future development of Csopak could take several directions. One obvious course is to turn it into a spa resort, based on these mineral waters. Another promising approach is to maintain and develop still further the great vineyard and wine-making traditions, and ensure that they flourish as never before.