Jarovce was established twice
Although it sounds weird, this is the fact. There was a village on the territory of today´s Jarovce at the beginning of the 13th century. Actually, its name is mentioned in the deed from 1208: Ban. However, it disappeared in the 15th century. It happened due to the fights between the troops of Matthias Corvinus and the German Emperor Frederick III on one hand side and the plague epidemic on the other side. However, on the place where not a living soul was left, the Croatians appeared in the first half of the 16th century and they set up a new village. And thus Jarovce was established for the second time.
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| source: www.jarovce.sk |
The establishment of the church in Jarovce has also two versions
The church that you will find in Jarovce in the vicinity of the mourning house is the oldest on the territory of Petržalka. If you ask the residents about how it was created, some of them would possibly say that it was built by the village people in the second half of the 18th century. Some of them would possibly start telling a story about Count Zichy that it happened once that he spotted local people gathered around the chapel on the cemetery and when he learned that that was their church, he expressed his surprise to the owner of this territory, Count Eszterházy. That encouraged Count Eszterházy to have a new church built for the local people. Some people would possibly tell both stories in parallel. Whatever the case may be, there is no documentary evidence preserved to any of the versions.
The Eszterházy family in Kittsee
While Count Nikolaus Esterházy took care about the church in Jarovce, Prince Paul Eszterházy was active in Kittsee. Because it was thanks to him that the local baroque castle that was built in the 17th century got its current appearance. One century later Paul told to himself that although the building was nice, it would be good anyway to have some reconstruction works done on it. Thus Kittsee got an attraction in its centre that is admired to these days.
Kittsee is a record holder also thanks to the Slovaks
Whilst Jarovce has approx. 2300 inhabitants, Kittsee has been able to maintain its status of the fastest growing municipality in Austria for several years already. All this is happening also thanks to the interest that the Slovaks show in Kittsee. Whilst there were 2176 people living in the village in 2011, currently there are approximately 3100 inhabitants. And the Slovaks make up nearly half of this number. It is also worth mentioning that the kindergarten in the village is the largest in Burgenland and the mother tongue of the majority of the children is the Slovak language.
Schoko-Csárda that is hard to resist
The chocolate lovers should definitely not connect the visit to Kittsee with fast transfer to Schwechat, Vienna or Bratislava. Because a chocolate factory lead by the third generation of the family Hauswirth has a seat in the village. This originally Viennese confectionery established in 1949 has gradually developed in the extent that Franz Hauswirth decided to move it to his native village. His son took care about making the chocolate delicacies famous not only in Austria, but all around Europe, America and in Australia. Also the Schoko-Csárda company store has its seat in Kittsee, for the visit of which you would definitely need more time than it takes our limousines to take you from Vienna to Bratislava.
