Coat of arms of Pornóapáti

Pornóapáti

(Until 1899: Pornó; German: Pernau; Croatian: Pornova) is a village in Vas County, in the Szombathely District, Hungary.

The name of the settlement probably derives from the Slavic place name Pernovo, though its exact origin is unknown. The suffix of the name refers to the village’s former Cistercian abbey.

Location

The village lies 16 kilometers southwest of Szombathely, near the Austrian border, at the confluence of the Pornóapáti Stream and the Pinka River.
Its neighboring settlements are Horvátlövő, Nárai, Ják, Abdalóc, Németlövő, Beled, and Pokolfalu.

From Szombathely, Pornóapáti can be reached via Road No. 8713, which runs from Újperint to the village. It is connected to Horvátlövő and the border villages to the north by Road No. 8714.
No railway line serves the settlement.

History of Pornóapáti

Roman villas may have existed in the area during Roman times, as suggested by a 4th-century Roman tombstone with a Latin inscription found in the village boundary.

The settlement was first mentioned in 1221 under the name Porno. Its abbey was founded in the same year by Chepan, son of Stephen (István) of the Ják clan, who held the office of palatine.
In 1457, the patron of the abbey was Bertold Ellerbach, and after the extinction of that family, Tamás Bakócz became its patron. From Bakócz, ownership passed to his heirs, the Erdődy family.

In the 16th century, during the siege of Kőszeg, the Ottomans completely destroyed the settlement, though it was later rebuilt. The abbey was fortified as part of the defense against the Turks; traces of its former moats are still visible today.
In 1643, the abbey was granted to the Jesuits and attached to the Abbey of Szentgotthárd. After the dissolution of the Jesuit order, it came into the possession of the Esterházy family and the Princes of Liechtenstein.

From the remains of the abbey buildings, the estate known as Ómajor was built west of the Pinka River. A stone bearing an inscription from 1612, originating from the former abbey, is still built into the wall of the steward’s residence there.
By the mid-18th century, the monastery had been completely destroyed, and its church fell into such disrepair that it had to be demolished in 1799.
The village’s Roman Catholic church was built in 1780.

According to András Vályi, the settlement was described as follows:

“PORNÓ. Bernau. A German village in Vas County, whose landlord is the Royal Treasury; its inhabitants are Catholics and others; it lies by the waters of the Pinka, three-quarters of a mile from Monyorókerék. It also has an abbacy; its lands are of medium quality, its assets are varied; it belongs to the second class.”

Elek Fényes wrote the following about the village:

“Pornó, Pernau, a German village in Vas County, near the waters of the Pinka, postal station two hours from Szombathely, with 506 Catholic inhabitants and a parish church. This place is notable for its old Cistercian monastery and abbey, whose origin is dated to the year 1235; moreover, already in the charter of liberties of King Andrew II from 1221 it is mentioned that Stephen, the only son of Stephen (Cheban), Palatine of Hungary, being a very pious man, turned to the Abbot of Szentgotthárd, who received him in a fatherly manner and clothed him in the habit of the order. Stephen then attached all his ancestral inheritance, consisting of the estates of Pornó and Monyorókerék, to the monastery of Szentgotthárd. When the abbey of Pornó and the estate of Monyorókerék were separated from the Cistercians of Szentgotthárd is uncertain, but it is likely that this occurred during the Ottoman siege of Kőszeg in 1532, when the enemy devastated everything in this county with fire and sword. Later, in 1643, the estate of Pornó was given to the Jesuits of Sopron; after their suppression it passed first to the treasury and then to Prince Liechtenstein, and is now owned by Archduke Ferdinand of Este.”

In 1910, the village had 696 inhabitants, mostly of German ethnicity, with a significant Hungarian minority. Under the terms of the Treaty of Trianon, the village was annexed to Austria, but in 1923, following a decision by the League of Nations during the Hungarian–Austrian border delimitation process, it was returned to Hungary (see also the Sopron plebiscite).

According to the 1941 census, of the 632 inhabitants, 467 had German, 157 Hungarian, 7 Croatian, and 1 another mother tongue.

In early 1944–1945, the actor Antal Páger lived in a forester’s house here. Forced to leave the capital with his family on 20 August 1944, he settled in Pornóapáti and, following the offensive of Soviet intervention forces, crossed the Austrian border during the night of 28–29 March 1945. From Pornóapáti he traveled to perform in the theatres of Sopron, Győr, and Szombathely.

In 2005, Western Transdanubia’s first village biomass heating plant was completed here, based on Austrian models, at a cost of 220 million forints. A 1.1 MW biomass-based bio-solar heating plant was built with an associated heat storage tank and 3.9 kilometers of district heating pipelines supplying households. At its launch, 86 residential and 11 public consumers were connected.
In the same year, a joint wastewater treatment plant serving Pornóapáti and the neighboring village of Horvátlövőwas inaugurated, along with its network, implemented with support from the PHARE CBC program. The total project cost was 352 million forints, 90% of which was covered by the PHARE program and governmental co-financing.

In 1922, established border crossings were opened between Beled and Pornóapáti toward Körmend, and between the village and Németlövő toward Graz; these were closed in 1949.
In 2005, reconstruction of the roads along Körmendi Street and the continuation of Main Street began. Following Hungary’s accession to the Schengen Agreement in 2007, the borders were reopened, and on 4 December 2009, the connecting roadworks on the Austrian side were also completed.
With the ceremonial opening of the road, a new bus service was launched on the Güssing (Németújvár) – Pornóapáti – Oberwart (Felsőőr) route, using environmentally friendly eco-buses.

Az eredeti kép forrása: https://www.nemzetijelkepek.hu/onkormanyzati-cimerek (az oldal megszűnt)
Szöveg forrása: Wikipedia