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| Dear Diane Peterson,
I have found your message only today. Your interest about this village is for me very exciting because I am the native of your forefathers from Hokovce. I was born in this village in 1953. Did you realize your intended visit in this village? Hokovce is one of the oldest villages of the country. The first mention about the settlement is from the X. century. Orriginaly it was settled by Slavic (Slovak)population. About 1230 was there built the interesting old church. It was constructed in Gotic style and it is one of the first Gotic buildings in Central Europe. No Gotic buildings are known from this time from Germany, Bohemia, Austria, Ítaly or Spain. The reason is very simple. A group of monks imported the new style from France. The first Slavic population was killed off and resolved by Tatar raiders in 1241. After departure of the Tatar occupants was the village again colonised. We have no exact data about the nationality of the new population but we know that Hokovce was declared as a town. The promissing development of the little town was interrupted after bloody nose of the imperial army at Plastovce - Palast by Turks in August 1550. Plastovce or Palast is the next settlement if you come over Slatina - Szalatnya (from Hokovce) in the Eastern direction. The Imperial Army had its camp during 16 last days before the battle in Hokovce. The commander Erasmus Teufel convened in Hokovce more then 10 000 soldiers. After the disastous defeat of the imperial army the population of the Hokovce village skiped off and the Turks occupated more or less empty village. During the Turkish times (up to the end of the 17. century) had the village only a few inhabitants. The new history of the village started only after the ejection of the Turkish army from the Hungarian Kingdom. At the beginning of the 20. century was Hokovce a important village so it is simple to understand why decided your forefathers to settle in this place. Unitil 1950 increased the number of the inhabitants up to 900. You could find in the village an important parish office for 5 surrounding villages, 2 schools (Hungarian and Slovak), 2 shops with food-stuffs, 2 pubs, wood-office, a doctor, chemist (my grandfather), post-office, shops with garments, shoes, a repair shops, bakehouse, butcher, barber, forge, well developed viniculture etc. Most of the population was in that times Hungarian (today it is mixed with Slovak population in rate 50 : 50). Now is Hokovce a slowly dying village with only about 550 inhabitants. Did you found somebody who could inform you about your forefathers? With best regards, Yours Sincerely, Peter Andras | ||
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