Oberwart - History

History

The settlement was established in the 11th century by the guards of the Hungarian frontier (őrs) together with Unterwart (Alsóőr) and Siget in der Wart (Őrisziget). It was first mentioned in historical documents in 1327 under the name Superior Eör. It was part of the old county of Vas until 1921. Old surnames and the special local dialect shows that the population was related to the Székelys of Transylvania (i.e. the guards of the eastern border of Kingdom of Hungary).

The community of the őrs received the privileges of the nobles by King Charles I of Hungary in the 14th century. The privileges were acknowledged by Rudolph I in 1582. The village was partially destroyed by the Ottoman army in 1532.

Reformation appeared in Felsőőr in the 16th century, and it was backed by the mighty Counts of Battyhány. Pastor Ferenc Eőri took part in the synod of 1618. In the Age of Counter-Reformation, most of the region had to return to Roman Catholic faith, but the free noble village of Felsőőr remained Calvinist. In 1673 the army occupied the church and the school to give them back to the Catholics. The rectory was destroyed, and the pastor expelled. The villagers erected a new church in 1681 from wood. According to the laws of the Diet of 1681, Felsőőr became an "articular place" which means that it was the only legal place to practice Protestant religion for the whole region.

The villagers participated in the Hungarian national uprising of István Bocskay in 1605, and of Count Francis II Rákóczi in 1705. In 1706 the Austrian army of General Sigbert Heister sacked Felsőőr. In 1841 the village got the right to held a market. In the time of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, the villagers defeated (with the help of a Hussar troop) a smaller Croatian army. Later they had to pay a huge amount of tribute to avoid collective punishment.

Geographer Elek Fényes described the village in 1851 as an important and historically significant őr settlement:

"The fields are of only average fertility but the meadows are good. Has got sufficient wood and pasture. The inhabitants are the most diligent in the county: they are not only cultivating flax and breeding horses but they produce cloth and lint, make knives and other ironworks, practice crafts and trade."

At that time, 41 noble families lived in Felső-Őr. Some typical family names were: Ádám, Adorján, Albert, Andorkó, Balás, Bertha, Bertók, Fábián, Fülöp, Gál, Imre, Kázmér, Miklós, Orbán, Pál, Pongrácz, etc.

After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, the village began to develop rapidly, and the population reached 3900 people in 1910. According to the Treaty of Trianon in 1920, Felsőőr was annexed by Austria, but the Hungarian population opposed the decision and organised a movement to establish the autonomous province of Lajtabánság. In November 1921, the Austrian army occupied the village.

After the Anschluss with Germany in 1938, the Jewish inhabitants of the village (appr. 140 people) were deported, and the synagogue was transformed into a fire department depot. According to the Nazi policy of Germanisation, the old Hungarian school of the Reformed Church was secularized. In 1939 Oberwart was incorporated as a town. In April 1945 the Red Army occupied Oberwart after a week of fierce fighting and plundered the half-destroyed town. In the 1950s and 1960s, Oberwart was rebuilt and thoroughly modernized.