Ráckeve

Savoy Castle

Coat of arms

Ráckeve

Location of Ráckeve in Hungary

Coordinates: 47°07′52″N 18°56′51″E / 47.13116°N 18.94747°E

Country

Ráckevei

Rank

City

KSH code

17260

Area

• Total

64.09 km² (24.75 sq mi)

Population (2008)

• Total

9,726

• Density

150/km² (390/sq mi)

Time zone

CET (UTC+1)

• Summer (DST)

CEST (UTC+2)

Postal code

2300

Area code

+36 24

Ráckeve (Serbian: Српски Ковин / Srpski Kovin) is a town on Csepel Island in the county of Pest County, Hungary. Its residents are Magyars, with minority of Serbs.

The Serbian Kovin Monastery, the oldest in Hungary and one of two in the Diocese of Buda of the Serbian Orthodox Church, was built in 1487 in the centre of Ráckeve. Also in central Ráckeve is the Savoy Castle of Prince Eugene of Savoy, built in the baroque style in 1702–50.

After the Árpád dynasty was established, the region of today's Ráckeve belonged to the Hungarian king.

In the Middle Ages, there was a settlement here called Ábrahámtelke, and also a monastery built in the 12th century, mentioned in official document in 1212 the first time.

In the 15th century many Serb refugees came from the South, fleeing the invasions of the Ottoman Turks. In this time, the settlement was called Kiskeue, that is to say "Kiskeve" in modern Hungarian. Kiskeve means "Little Keve" in English, and the Serbs in the town called it Mali Kovin = "Lesser Kovin", or Gornji Kovin ("Upper Kovin") in contrast with the name of other Kovin (Donji Kovin / "Lower Kovin") in the South, where the Serbs had fled from.

In the 16th century, Ráckeve was a respectable mercantile town. The Calvinist variant of Reformation was spread in the town by Szegedi Kis István.

In 1541, the town fell under Ottoman rule, and most of its population fled towards North. Many Serbs who used to live in the town settled in Győr and Komárom. Those who stayed in the town elected a "duke" called Đurđe (1543–46). In 1567, the town was populated by (mostly Calvinist) Hungarians and Serbs.

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Wikipedia