IVÁN KOVÁCS SÁNDOR: FERENC WATHAY (1568-1609?)

------------------------Ferenc Wathay, a prominent soldier of the fights against the Turks was born at Nagyvág, in Sopron County, was serving in several Transdanubian fortresses and as a heroic vice captain defending Székesfehérvár, he was taken prisoner in 1602. The valuable prisoner was taken to Constantinople and he couldn't escape despite of his fantastic break-out attempts; later on he was exchanged in 1606 for a Turk officer of similar value, imprisoned in Hungary.
-----The boredom and the versatile abilities of captain Wathay rendered him a poet. Fortunately, his manuscript poem book illustrated by his own colour pen sketches and aquarelles was passed down to us. Wathay wrote mostly poems of archaic fashion, however, he was well-read regarding the poetry and his poetry was characterised by a modern poetic taste. He also wrote his autobiography. His poems written in the prison and his pictures are unique in the Hungarian late renaissance literature.

PÉTER BÁRDOSSY: THE HISTORY OF THE BÁRDOSSY FAMILY IN VAS COUNTY

-----The Bárdossy family is one of the most ancient noble families in Vas County. The family got its name from the Bárdos settlement being in the neighbourhood of Szombathely. It was first mentioned in a document in 1368. During the centuries, the family broke into several branches and pursued farming at different settlements of the county. The Inczédi branch Emerged from these. The members of this branch have often chosen the public functionary career and they fulfilled significant positions at the county and at Szombathely city. The most known member of the family is László Bárdossy, being the Prime Minister of Hungary between 1941-42.

VILMOS VOIGT: HOW LONG IS EUROPE CONSIDERED
THE HOMELAND OF NATIONS AND CULTURE?

-----The ancient European poetry, first of all the heroic poetry was considered even in the early times more then shear literature. It was connected to the mythological background. Its later hermeneutics also often used "mythical" terminology. Homer's epics were especially considered as being myth as well and the semantics of these epics were utilised by a likewise "mythic" hermeneutics: the epic poetry is the "singing Greece", the proof for the "normal childhood of the humankind" etc. Since the (early) romantics the folk poetry had a similar fate: the ballads and tales are celebrated as the emanation of the "folk spirit". The imitations were followed by other imitations, the Kalevala is the index of Homer and Edda, the Estonian (and later the Latvian, Mordvinian etc.) epics succeed the Kalevala. The "European" folk tradition is serving as an example today in Africa, South-East Asia etc. Therefore, in the recent centuries the multicultural European folk tradition became a worldwide model.

BERTALAN ANDRÁSFALVY: THE FOLK TRADITION AND THE CHILD

-----According to the folklore professor of the University of Pécs, the national identity is an important component of the personality, the child's play is one of the most important developing factors for it. The traditional folk plays are the forming factors for the social feeling and the exhilaration for life, in contrast with the competition plays currently prevailing. The folk poetry, folk music, traditional dances (e.g. the round dance) were equally promoting the physical and spiritual development of the child just like the custom of tale-telling or the traditional order of childbirth and breast-feeding. All nations should learn now and in the future from the gathered values if they want to survive the devastations caused by the globalisation.

SÁNDOR HORVÁTH: ETHNIC FEATURES, INTERACTIONS
AND/OR THE PANNONIAN TYPE
(Folkloristic Characteristics of West-Pannonian Euregion)

-----The author investigates the area of historical Western Hungary - with multilingual, multiethnic environment, thus having multiple cultural heritage - according to three aspects. First, the author pays attention to the ethnic and/or national symbols, then the interactions and finally, he investigates whether the Pannonian or West-Pannonian culture exists. Preceding this, however, he overviews with a few examples the typical ethnic symbols of the Germans, Croatians, Hungarians and Slovenians living on this area. He asks the question: which one of these appear on this area. Among others, mention is made of the "dirndli", the Hungarian ceremonial dress (the "díszmagyar"), the zither, the "kozolec" (i.e. the hay drier rack of Slovenian origin), the "goulash", shell-shaped pasta as well as the "ricset".

ENDRE TAMÁS: HISTORY OF DOCTOR'S CERTIFICATE OF HALLE (1945)

-----The retired head surgeon presently living at Celldömölk, has pursued his studies during the Second World War at the Medical School of the Pázmány Péter University of Sciences at Budapest. In December 1944, the medical students and their professors were transferred to Germany because of the approaching frontline. After the description of the journey full of hardships, the author tells us about the Halle period (the study was continued there and he obtained his diploma there); then, he writes about his experiences at his first workplace, in a German military hospital. He was taken prisoner by the American Army. The story continues with the description of the period after his captivity and his return to the hospital of Szombathely - an interesting, source-value remembrance.

ECCLESIASTICAL REPORTS FROM VAS COUNTY, 1952-1958
PUBLISHED BY: ISTVÁN KÖVÉR
Publication No. 1.

-----The State Ecclesiastic Office - established in 1951 - had as duty to observe and to keep under strict control the operation of the churches and do everything possible in order to accomplish the will of the communist party on this area. The County secretariats of the Office have regularly prepared reports on - among others - behaviour of the bishop and the priests, their activity, opinions, on the certain phenomena of the religious life as well as on their own, direct interventions and measures. István Kövér publishes a selection from the Vas County reports.

TAMÁS HENDE: BETWEEN WAR AND REVOLUTION
(Interviewing Dr. Ferenc Sill Aba)

-----The interview is an excerpt from the competition work of the young author that won a prize on the National High School Contest presenting the development of the dictatorship after 1945 at Szombathely and the surrounding territory. Dr. Ferenc Aba Sill (1925-), a parish priest, the provincial of the Hungarian Franciscan Order, director of the Szombathely's Diocese Library, local historian. He remembers his personal memories on the Russian occupation and the more then one decade following it, among others, on the vivid religious life of the second half of the forties, and then, the dissolution of the monastic orders.

GÁBOR ILON: RITUAL IRON AGE CENTRE AT THE KALAPOS-STONE AT BOZSOK?

-----The Kalapos-Stone is a rock mass emerging from its environment about 10-15 m high, extending over an area of 100 x 30 m on the southern part of the Kőszegi-Mountains, at an altitude of 586 m. It is an old archaeological presumption that it could have been a cultic ritual site belonging to the Palaeolithic centre of the Velem, around the St. Vid Mountain. The author publishes the results of his archaeological probe-samplings carried out at the Kalapos-Stone; the results are not proving this presumption, however, encourage further research.

FERENC A. SZABÓ: '56 ACADEMY IN VAS COUNTY
(Killers have to be named)

-----The first '56 Academy at Szombathely and Sárvár has been organised in January 2002, in a joint organisation of the '56 Association Presidency, the Ministry of Education, Vas County Local Government and the "Apáczai Csere János" Foundation. Co-workers of the 20^th Century Institute in Budapest were the lecturers of this programme, targeting mostly the further training of high school teachers. The essay relates on the lectures delivered during the programme of the Academy and lists those topics related to the Revolution in 1956 in relation to that the most ignorance and misconception emerged. Neither the public opinion nor the school education is dealing appropriately with this historical event of global importance; however, its significance would justify it.
-----The decades of the Kádár regime have deformed the picture of the Revolution among the Hungarian people. A symptom of this is that neither the Hungarian literature is dealing with an appropriate emphasis with 1956.