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Early historical mementos
There are four thousand years old archeological mementos can be found in Lelle and its surroundings from different ethnic groups. In the Roman age, the significant Had- road went through here.
The settlement during the conquest and in the Middle Ages
The name of the settlement appeared first in 1229 in written documents. In the location of the recent town there were many smaller settlements. Lelle used to be a serf village, several landowners rotated each other. The land was used mostly as plough-land, but from the 17th century the function changed into grape growing land.
The earliest registered stamp of the settlement remained from 1760.
Lelle in the 19th century
The settlement consisted of a 110 houses in the beginning of the 19th century and in the first decades of the 1800's; the population was 600. The last few years in this period the number of inhabitants was already 1185.
Lelle received the market-town rank on the 7th of January 1848, which brought development of the economy. It established an independent office of notary in 1868.
The significant event of this century was the battle in September of 1848 between Jellasics, the Croatian ban and the local national guards. The last mentioned one won this battle.
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| The Irmapuszta fisher lake |
The settlement between the two World Wars
Lelle became a large village in 1921. The number of inhabitants increased, the social compound changed, the social and intellectual life came to life, which showed more city-like elements. During the formation of the features of the settlement, mainly the booming of the bath-culture played a big role. The immigration was magnificent between 1920 and 1941. The population increased with another 1088 persons. New streets and squares opened and created.
The settlement during the World War II
The Russian troops occupied Lelle on the 3rd of December 1944; the German supreme command gave the settlement up without any fight. Due to the German counterattacks in mid December, the shore side then the whole village was emptied. The deportees chose Karad, Somogybabod and Zizse as their temporary residence.
The formation of the bath culture
The first summerhouse was built in 1896 and 15 years later 65 cottage owners were registered. The bath association was founded in 1904. Between 1923 and 1941, 123 summer cottages were built. Half of its owners dealt with renting rooms. In 1943, 28 guesthouses waited for its local and foreign customers in 625 rooms. In the last year of piece in 1939 the number of the holiday crowd was 12 and half thousand.
Out of the other south part holiday resorts, the exclusive Lelle could be so popular due to the article whereas it received a thermal bath rank. The reason Lelle deserved this rank that it met the health and medical requirements on the very high level.
Part of the recent settlement belonged to a lakebed. In the beginning of the Pleistocene period, there were four individual basins in the place of the lake, which was separated by north-south tableland.
The highest point of the settlement's border, the top of the Kishegy, which reaches 300 meters above see level. The lands on the lower part were emptied in the 19th century. The former deepest part is still up today a marshy area.
The use and curative effect of the shore side fine sand was registered in the 18-19th centuries.
Lelle bears with a 5 km long shore. 2 km out of this covered by concrete and absolutely suitable to use as beach. The water of the lake is cleaner than the average, shallow, sandy and it gets deeper slowly. Looking at the chemical compounds, alkaline, overweight, calcic, magnesium, hydro carbonated and its Ph result is 8,4. Its salt content is 300 mg/1. It is bacterium free. The other lake of the settlement is the fishing lake with 8 units, which was founded in 1920. Out of its two significant streams, the Tetves stream is a swamp on the eastern border and it empties the Lelle grove. The bed of the Forro-ditch drains off the unnecessary rainwater near to the Uszo city, which is collected by the Nadas Lake. Both streams flow into the lake Balaton.
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| The 20th of August Fest in Balatonlelle |
The lake has a temperate climate. Beside this the foehn effect is significant as well. According to the statistics, every summer there was 20-25 sunny days, which means that 5 cloudy days appear monthly even in July and in August. The temperature is 25-30 grad Celsius in the summer months, or even higher like 36-38 grad Celsius. Storms are very frequent here and come very quickly due to the south direction wind. The change is very sudden then and very dangerous as well, the strong, stormy wind above the lake. The lake is quite visible from every direction of the town therefore the storm can be predicted.
The water of the lake offers home for more than 100 different kinds of animals. The useful part of it of course is the stock of fish. Many kinds can be found here around Lelle as well. The best-known and popular kinds are the Europian wells, pikeperch, balin, pelecus, pike and bream. These water inhabitants are utilized by fishing. The fishermen fancy the Lelle area as well.
The ornithologists register 278 kinds of birds around the lake Balaton. Most of them can be found in Lelle as well. The songbirds are welcomed very much, the lark, tit, song thrush and the finches. The Irmapuszta lake system offers great atmosphere to the water birds. The heron is a very valuable type.
The day care center was established in 1964 and 14 kindergarten teachers wait for the kids every morning. They prepare the children for school in 6 groups and in a very modern environment.
The city has more than 400 school-aged pupils who shall study in a favorable atmosphere. The typical character of the school is the European classroom, which is surrounded by different nations symbols. The institute offers music education as well; woodwind, brass and percussion instruments are available, also piano lessons. In the 2001/2002 school years, 64 pupils took advantage of this service.
Four family practitioners deal with patients in Lelle, one of them is a pediatrician as well. Two pharmacies are available for the customers.
90% of the population is catholic. The local parish organizes them. The church was built in 1943. Two chapels belong to the parish. 7-8% of the population is protestant and welcomed by the reformed oratory.
850 smaller enterprises provide catering service mainly based on the tourism. More than half of the inhabitants get their income from the annually 35-40 thousand foreign tourists.
The vine growing falls under the tourism as well. The Balatonlelle Hegykozseg represents the farmers.
The producing industry employs about 200-250 people.
The most traditional sport is the sailing. Nowadays the most popular is the football, the Balatonlelle Sport Club's team is a NB II leading group. Tennis is a very popular sport where Kis Kuti Rita and Mandula Petra started.
The local sport hall, beside the local mass sport provides home for international competitions.
The center of the culture life is the former Szalai-mansion culture center, including a library with German literature and magazines, and different show rooms. The Middle Africa Exhibition can be found in these rooms, which' materials were received from Somssich Pongrac. In the park of the institute there is an open-air theatre offers many programs.
The other home of culture is the Kapoli Museum, where two wood sculptor artis, Jr.Kapoli Antal and his son arts as well Ligeti Miklos paintings can be seen.
The Fun Park is open in the whole summer as well as the Holiday Park and the Hungarian National Circus provides enthusiastic entertainment.
14 civilian organizations function in town. There are traditionalists, retired, sport and fishermen. 13 foundations support their work.
Important organ of the public life is the Lelle newspaper, which was published first in 1991 and issued monthly.
The public safety is provided by three organizations; the local police station, the national guards and the public domain board. With the help of these organizations as well as the local authority, the situation of the public safety got better in the past years.
is located right next to the train station, to different places showing the values of the settlement. Main stops of the routes are the Szalai mansion, the Kapoli Museum, the Catholic Church, the Jankovich manor, the Nepomuki St. Janos statue, famous summer cottages on shore and other sights. Great excursion plan is the Kishegy with a beautiful panorama or Radpuszta with the Arpad-era church's ruins can be seen.
Whoever loves nature; the Irmapuszta lakes and its surroundings provide experience with its particular flora and fauna.
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| Visitors on an exhibition in the Africa |
The roads are covered with solid pavement in the whole settlement. The main road number 7 goes through the town and handles a magnificent traffic. At the meeting point of the road number 67 there is a traffic circle, which is the only one on the south part of the lake joins other routes and constantly makes the headway faster, but with the construction of the highway M7 will have a chance to change drastically.
The bicycle road is completed along the town, which joins the Szemes and Boglar sections as part of the whole Balaton tour.
The public traffic functions on a high quality. The train station is one of the nicest buildings around the lake with European standards including the automatic ticket machine.
The bus transportation consists of 12 routes and the local routes, reaches 8 different points in town.
The passenger boats are significant in the summer with two cruises daily in and out of the Lelle harbor. Also there are three small boat ports exist here and the largest one bears with high standard quality and offers service to sailors.
The most valuable object of the town is the 4 km long paved, sandy part of the lake, which is absolutely suitable for enjoying the beach. Beside this, the downtown area decorated with many beautiful flowers, buildings, houses with different traditions, summerhouses, parks, vineyards can be amazing sights. The fishing lake and its surrounding area offers great benefit to spent restful times.
Its monuments are the two already mentioned ones, the St Donat chapel on Kishegy and the church ruins in Radpuszta. Visitores need to pay attention to the Nepomuk St Janos statue and the Catholic Church, where many valuable arts can be seen.
The traditional section of the economy here is the vine growing. The most typical vine types are the following: green veltelini, riesling, Italian Riesling, Chardonnay, Princess, Sauvignon Blanc and Sevillon and the red ones are the Kekfrankos, Merlot, Oporto Blanc and Cabernet. The south Balaton wine road consists of 6 stations, the Balaton vine cellar, Horse center, Hotel Francoisa, Pocz vine cellar, Cavpona Caesar tavern and the St Donatus vine cellar and country tavern, which mark the quality of the vine and the professionalism of the vine growers.
The largest producing company is the worldwide known Philips Company's branch, the PHT Print Kft, with German shares and produces printed circuits mainly for west European export. Female employees are dominant at the red Cherry Kft, where they produce different sweets. The Marha-priced hand-dipped branded cherries are produced here as well. The other smaller enterprise is the Lelex Kft, which makes metal structures.
There are two department stores in town, the Tempo and Penny and other smaller boutiques serve the customers. In 2002, nearly 300 stores offered their products. The number of restaurants registered in this year nearly 200. There are 7 hotels available in different categories, many privately owned guesthouses, two camps, rented summer and rooms.
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| The former Tildy house inner yard today |
Two-third of the visitors are foreign tourists, mainly from Germany. In the past few years more and more polish visited the town as well.
Lelle is a sister-town to the Romanian (Szekely land) Szentegyhaza since 1990. In 2000, the town started a relationship with the German Ramstein-Miesenbach. Both get know each other through cultural delegation, art groups' visits, but they are still looking for other options to co-operate. The local authority signed a contract with the Polish Jelesnia for children's' holiday scheme.
There are 2150 flats in town. The number of summerhouses is 2685. Foreigners own 102 properties.
The settlement is sectioned into three divisions. The first one is the shore side, from the train station to north. The second one is south of here, the Petofi Street, Taban close and the area closed by the Takacs Sandor and Matyas kiraly streets. The third zone is everything else.
More center are formed in the settlement; the church, the city hall, the monumental building of the school, the culture center and its area, the St Istvan square with the alley to the harbor, the Fortuna shopping mall and the Fun Park.
The public green area in town is very well kept and its size is about 4000 square meters. The streets and squares are decorated with beautiful ornamental garden trees. There are 8 playgrounds available for the children in different locations.
The outlook of the town will be changed dramatically with the completed construction of the road M7, which will terminate the constant through traffic. The road number 67 goes around the town as well. Te traffic regulations will change too, therefore the pedestrian traffic will be safer.
The main aspect of the new construction is to protect and keep the features of the already existing living parks and family homes.
The town welcomes the new investors to settle down in different industrial branches like the information technology to increase the employment status. More improvements are planned in the vine growing section as well.
The open-air theatre and its area will be reconstructed shortly. The Fortuna shopping center will be expanded into a sport and hobby center as well. The aim of the local authority is to bring into existence the Wellness-fitness program, which already started with the fun bath on the beach. According to the plans, the pools will be covered and other medical therapy services will be introduced.
In order to extend the outing options, development can be expected around the Nadas-lake and the Irampuszta fishing lake. Plans are directed to welcome the horse racing sport as well.
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| The sculpture of Kodály Zoltán the music school's denominative |
The number of permanent inhabitants was nearly 5000 (4938) in the year of 2001. One hundred years ago this number was 1159. The demographical rate of town is positive, increasing slowly.
The most famous one is the wine fest, which is organized for the 10th times in 2002 and the most people visit it. A wine competition is arranged during the fest and the Balatonlelle Miss Wine is chosen. The other significant events are" the picnic on 1st of May in Kishegy, the Balatonlelle Julialis in July, the Horse meeting in Kishegy at the end of June, Miss Balaton competition in the first days of August, water fest on the 20th of August with concert in the church represented by famous organists.
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