MICRO VILLAGES AS RECREATIONAL SPACES – KISÚJBÁNYA

Abstract

One of the antecedents of the creation of recreational spaces in Hungary, connected to the necessity and motivation base on the level of society, is the development and increase of the domestic and inbound tourism characteristic to the 1960s and 1970s. At this time touristic zones and garden-plot regions were created serving private sites based recreation in the surrounding areas of the Hungarian towns. The creation of such recreational spaces can be seen both within the towns and in their neighboring settlements. The rural settlements turning to recreational spaces are characterized by “post-productivity”, so instead of producing traditional products the residential, recreational and holiday functions are strengthened. By now within the functional settlement types the detachment of recreational settlements is verified, since Beluszky P. and Sikos T.T. in their repeated settlement standardization after the change of the regime decidedly detach the holiday function and so these settlements were classified to a separate cluster. In this cluster the micro villages appeared as well enabling them to get over their serious problems endangering even their existence, since in most of the cases these settlements are allocated in beautiful natural surroundings providing the basis for the tourism potential. Kisújbánya, a micro village allocated within the area of the Eastern-Mecsek Land Protection Area, is also such a settlement apparently with 13 inhabitants.

The Sväbisch (German) settlement established in the 18th century possessed 300 inhabitants for 2 centuries, than after 1945 after a slow decrease in the population in the beginning of the 1970s it has drastically been almost depopulated within 2-3 years. However, in this era a process of site forestalling with recreational purposes started as well characteristically connected to urban and intellectual population which as a matter of fact saved the settlement from total depopulation. Due to the local colligation strengthened in recent years, on the one hand the settlement successfully turned to tourism and on the other hand the preservation of the local authentic values remained important with high priority, providing one of the most important attractions of Kisújbánya. The case study is a good example of the process which is characterized by the different forms of leisure spending in the changing relation of urban and rural areas. Kisújbánya is a patent example of this relation system but at the same time by now it exceeds the traditional leisure village function for only private utilization and, characteristic to the strength of the new local community, it opens to the world showing their values on the tourism market.