VITICULTURE IN THE GREAT HUNGARIAN PLAIN BEFORE AND AFTER THE PHYLLOXERA EPIDEMIC
Abstract
The viticulture in Hungary was an important part of the economical life from the times of feudalism. The vineyards were mainly situated on the southern slopes of hills and lower mountains from where the wine could be transported to the markets of important cities and even sent to export.
In some places the produced wine was only for self-sufficiency, for example in the agricultural towns with far reaching borders of the Great Plains.
Among those towns, viticulture started already in the 16th century in Debrecen, but only in the second half of the 18th century in Orosháza and Kecskemét. Maria Theresa and II. Joseph permitted the planting of vine in the sandy western borders of Kecskemét to bound the drift sand which started to gain space due to overgrazing. Vineyards were planted on the western and northern borders of Orosháza after the resettlement of the town following the end of the Ottoman era.
The phylloxera epidemic devastated the vineyards of Hungary in the last third of the 19th century. In some parts of the country the epidemic contaminated the 80-90 % of the vineyards, but on sandy soils the damage was minimal. In the last decade of the century due to the state-supported replanting of vine, the regional concentration of vineyards changed, and the proportion of vineyards in the Great Plains jumped up to 50 %. The changes affected the three mentioned towns as well — the vineyards of Kecskemét were tripled by 1913. In Debrecen the former vineyards were built-in due to the increase of population. The intensive growing of grain, corn and sugar beet took the places of the vineyards of Orosháza.
