Középkori fehérvári polgárok mezőgazdasági ingatlanai a város határán belül és kívül
Agricultural Property Owned by Medieval Burghers of Fehérvár, Within and Beyond the Town Walls

Summary/Abstract: The study examines the agricultural property owned by burghers of medieval Hungary’s coronation town, (Székes)Fehérvár. Despite the paucity of surviving medieval written sources, some remarks can be made to fill in the gaps in the history of the town. The authors first establish the medieval boundaries of the town and within it they delineate those areas which were suitable for ploughland and vineyards, tangential addressing the utilization of marshland reeds. They suggest that even as late as in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries certain plots situated in the center of Fehérvár had ploughlands attached to them in the outskirts of the town, which were probably redistributed on a yearly basis. Connecting the beginnings of this practice to the establishment of the self-governed town explains the staunch conservativism characterizing the regulations pertaining to agricultural land within the town boundaries. The findings suggest that the plots on the only hill within the medieval boundaries that was suitable for vineyards, referred to as ‘forehill’ in the sources, could be sold separately and even people from out of town were allowed to purchase them. Finally, the paper reveals that Fehérvár burghers expanded their property in their home county in every direction and they acted as landlords on their county properties: they used the grains and grapes grown there to augment their produce in town, and were entitled to sell, or place a lien on these lands in times of financial necessity. The similar analysis of their Somogy County properties – primarily vineyards – showed that most of the land they owned was concentrated in the northeastern part of the county, specifically the northern side of the outer Somogy hills.

• Details
• Contents