Zsámbék

Zsámbék (German: Schambeck) is a town in Pest County, in Hungary.

Zsámbék is located 30 km west of Budapest along the M1 motorway in the Gerecse Mountains. Its neighbouring villages are Tök, Perbál, Páty, Herceghalom, Mány, Bicske, and Szomor.

Zsámbék has been inhabited since Paleolithic times. It has seen Celtic, Roman and Avar populations throughout its history, according to archaeological finds. A Celtic coach's remains were found there as well as a bronze trumpet.

In the 1180s the wife of Béla III of Hungary, Margaret Capet, who was the step-sister of the French king Philippe Auguste, granted land around the village to a knight named Aynard, in recognition of his service to the King for safely escorting Margaret from Paris to Esztergom in 1186. His origin is obscure, but he would certainly have been selected for the military responsibility from those who the French king trusted. The only identifiable person in the king's entourage named Aynard was at one time the Viscount of Limoges, who had been outlawed by the Anglo-Norman court of Henry II in 1183. This person was assassinated in Paris in the year 1199. Aynard's family built the Premonstratensian church beginning in 1220.

The church was destroyed in 1241 during the Mongolian invasions. Following the destruction, during the reign of Béla IV of Hungary, the church and monastery were rebuilt. Positioned at an important merchant route — halfway between Esztergom and Székesfehérvár and near Buda — the village underwent rapid growth.

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