Summary

Torganised the vilajet of Buda around it, and the sanjak of Buda within it, where Ócsa belonged to one of its administrative units called the Pest náhije.

According to the records taken by the sanjak of Buda in 1546, 1559, 1562, 1580 and 1591, the settlement at that time was still a highly popu- lated village. During the Fifteen Year War (1593-1606), in 1594, the Tatar army of the Crimean Khanate penetrated the mid-Danube-Tisza area from the South, which military expedition destroyed the villages, with Ócsa among them.

It can be assumed based on indirect evidence that it was reconstructed in 1621 in a way that the largest part of its original population returned with some newcomers, of course. The re-setded community became purely re- formed by this time, and had a priest from this time on.

From the XVII. Century, Ócsa was in the hands of secular smallhold- ers, these were the Balogh, Kékedy, Dienes, and Puthnoky families. The population, the area of cultivated land, and the properties of both serfs and landlords started to increase again.

The Turkish army drawing up again with the Crimean Tatars to siege Vienna, burnt down and destroyed the area once again: the judges of Ócsa and Alsónémedi started to circulate a letter by way of a courier in the vicinity to warn their neighbours in advance about the peril. Finally - as we know -, Buda and its vicinity got liberated from the Turkish rule on the 2nd September 1686, and the expulsion of the Turks from Hungary was started. The depopulated settlement only became inhabited again in 1690—1691, a good five years after Buda was freed from the Turks. By the time, it could have got strong, there was the Kuruts Freedom Fight led by Ferenc Rákóczi. On the 13th January 1704, the troops of Máté Szabó, Kuruts colonel-captain "broke" five batallions of Serbian military in Pakonypuszta next to Ócsa, who were fighting on the Habs- burg side. István Andrássy, Chief Commander of the Kuruts troops fight- ing between the Danube and the Tisza, called to arms in his letter sent to Ócsa and its neighbourhood on the 14thFebruary, 1704. Twenty persons from Ócsa were recruited as soldiers according to the list as of May, 1704 of the Kuruts troops.

Ferenc Rákóczi II stayed in Ócsa with his troop from the 27th June until the 3rd July 1705, and issued his invitations for the national assembly planned to be held in the field of Rákos from here. Due to the closeness of the enemy, however, the national assembly was held in Szécsény. After the Peace of Szatmár signed on the 30th April 1711 between the forces fighting for Hungarian independence and the Habsburg Empire,he large settlement of Ócsa lies between the rivers Danube and Tisza on the border of the sandy highlands and the so called turjans left in the earlier river-bed of the Ancient-Danube. The aquatic wildlife of the turjans makes the landscape richer, and the wine cellars hollowed under the loess layer covering its surface are considered to be unique in folk architecture.

The Hungarian conquerors invaded the Carpathian Basin up to the Da- nube, and also the vicinity of Ócsa in 895. In addition to the Hungarians settling on the Avar folk basis in the early Middle Ages, some scarce Slavic and immigrated German elements could also be traced.

The provostal church in Jászó of the French Premonstratensian monas- tic order established an affiliated church along the Pest-Kecskemét-Szeged highway at the boundary of the settlement, which was first mentioned in a written document as early as in 1234. The Premonstratensian monastery originally emerged from royal will, and on the royal estate. The frescos showing the legend of Saint Ladislas in the interior of the church send their message from the XIII. Century.

The monastery had its estates in the village, as well as in Érd and in its vicinity in the Middle Ages. The consequence of this was that laymen from the nobility only started to have land here at the end of the XV. Century, by which time the Premonstratensian monastery of Ócsa had already become depopulated. The provostal church was even handed over to the Order of St. Paul by King Matthias in 1475.

The people of the village dealt with the cultivation of corn, fishing and lived the lives of predatory men, gaining whatever the then still huge forest could offer. It is probable that there was vineyard cultivation already in the Middle Ages. The row of cellars hollowed under the loess of the old hill of Öreghegy dates back to the XVII. Century.

After the Hungarian defeat at Mohács (29. August 1526.), the army led by the Sultan conquered Buda, which was left unprotected, and retreated to Turkey in the mid-Danube-Tisza area, also devastating this part of the country in the meantime. The Turks took possession of Buda with the intention of keeping it forever in 1541, and leaving it as the centre, they organised the vilajet of Buda around it, and the sanjak of Buda within it, where Ócsa belonged to one of its administrative units called the Pest náhije.

Ferenc Rákóczi II stayed in Ócsa with his troop from the 27th June until the 3rd July 1705, and issued his invitations for the national assembly planned to be held in the field of Rákos from here. Due to the closeness of the enemy, however, the national assembly was held in Szécsény. After the Peace of Szatmár signed on the 30th April 1711 between the forces fighting for Hungarian independence and the Habsburg Empire,the village witnessed a long period of piece characterised by growth. The increase in the number of population forced the enlightened, absolutist Habsburg rule to settle the question of serfs in an overall manner between 1769 and 1770. A new settlement was done in 1786, and in line with an Act on serfs in 1836, the separation and consolidation of land kept by lords and serfs were carried out in practice in our settlement.

There were twenty-five people from Ócsa serving in the army of Hun- garian honvéds during the 1848-49 revolution and freedom fight. Haynau, field marshal stayed with his military corp IV in Ócsa on his way from Pest to Szeged. His summary court condemned Károly Halászy, the Pres- byterian teacher of Alsónémedi, to be shot, and he was executed here. The martyr of the Freedom Fight lies here in the graveyard of the village. After the abolishment of serfdom in the second half of the XIX. Century, although with some delay, Ócsa embarked upon the road of developing intő a borough. Its vigorous peasant citizens found the source of their liv- ing primarily in harvesting the yields offered by grave production and vini- culture, the forests and the turjáns. From the very begjnning, this devel- opment was limited by the still existing large estates, and the drainage of natural waters at the beginning of the XX. Century, which led to a dried out land.

During the quarter of the century marked by the name of Miklós Horthy (1919-1944), large estates lingered on, the concentration of the land area of the peasant farms continued, therefore, as a result of this, the propor- tion of those who were forced to take jobs at factories, and commute, rose. The elite and the intelligentsia of the local society consisted, in addition to the members of historic families, of the officials working at the county court, the teachers teaching at the different educational institutions, the priests of churches, the significant stratum of cratsmen and retailers as well as the heads and up-growing generations of peasant-citizen families. The Soviet army conquered Ócsa on the 2nd November 1944. This was followed by the establishment of the Communist Party, and other parties were also set up. Public administration was re-organised. The peasant farms announced to belong to the wealthy peasants called kulaks were persecuted, deprived of their land, and all their peasants were forced to enter co-operatives.

During the days of the 1956 revolution and fight for freedom, between the 24th and 28th of October 1956, significant local movements took place, the extent of which showed the social tension accumulated up till then. In spite of all this, the revolutionised people of Ócsa stood well the tests of community management, organisation and the clean-up of difficulties during those days. Their strength in keeping their community organised still rooted in the presence of the peasant citizens full of self-esteem, and following the route of the borough.

The 1990-ies together with the changes of the political system, released the social, economic, emotional and intellectual energies, as well as the one inherent in the church communities depressed during the decades of "Socialism building", thus freeing the way of a new development which was to add quality and sense to life.