Szob
This large village lies at the feet of the Börzsöny Mountain where the Ipoly runs into the Danube, close to the Hungarian-Slovakian border. Due to its favourable location, the place has been inhabited since prehistoric times, which is proven by many of the archeological findings.
The oldest of these findings is a 30.000 year old stone instrument. A great number of Celtic people lived here, one of their burial objects, the „kantharos" is displayed in the National Museum of Hungary.
In Roman times, the Danube was a boundary river with the „limes" on its two banks, a chain of fortresses and bridge-heads. One example of these is the one in Szob at the mouth of the Ipoly. During the Hungarian Conquest, a large number of people settled close to the location of the present village, leaving numerous remnants of their dwellings. According to the chronicles of Simon Kézai, most of the conquering Hungarians crossed the Danube here by ferry.
The place was owned by the aristocrats of Szob until 1268, but later it became part of the Fortress of Damásd until the early 16th century. King Lajos I removed the officers of Szob, Helemba and Letkés from the jurisdiction of the bailiff and other authorities in 1268 and in 1355, the same three villages were granted tax free status on the Danube from Pozsony to Szalánkemén.
In 1371, the villagers were raised to the level of the citizens of Buda, thus gaining similar privileges. Eleven years later, King Lajos I gave all the income from the customs of Szob to the Paulite priests of Nosztra, which they were entitled to until the end of the Middle Ages.
King Lajos II hypothecated the Fortress of Damásd and all its land including Szob, Letkés and Helemba, and later it went into the possession of the Chapter of Esztergom and the Chapel of the Virgin Mary built by Cardinal Tamás Bakócz.
Szob survived the Turkish invasion, but the chapter decided to enlarge the lessened population by settling Slovaks from its land near Nyitra. The village church was constructed from 1775 until 1778 in Baroque style and was named after St. László. The Luczenbacher family, who settled in the 18th century, later played a great role in the development of the village. It was no surprise that the family was awarded a noble title in 1878 for their services.
János Luczenbacher, who later Magyarized his name to János Érdi, is a collateral descent of this family. He was a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, he edited the newspaper Tudománytár, worked for the National Museum of Hungary, and excelled in plenty of treaties and archeological excavations. Their castle stands on the bank of the Danube, which was first just a smaller mansion, but was later expanded into a castle of Baroque and Classicist styles. From 1931 to 1950, it was the Lazarist priests who owned the castle and then it became an orphanage. In 1994, it became St. László Grammar School of the Lazarist Order.
Another famous family was the Norwegian Gregersen family who gained fabulous wealth through their interests in the railway and bridge building industries. The Kodály family also lived in Szob from 1883 until 1885, the head of the family being the station master. Szob belonged to County Hont from the Arpadian Age to the Peace Treaty of Trianon, then it became part of County Nógrád and was finally integrated into County Pest in 1950. Apart from the church and the castle, the Börzsöny Museum is worth visiting. The museum introduces the archeological findings, the flora and the folklore of the Börzsöny. The works leading to the opening of the museum were started by Adolf János Horváth in the 1930s. The museum itself was founded by Géza Laczus.
