Donauinseln: October 2021

13 October 2021

Danubian Island of the year 2021

IN HUNGARIAN

This is the ninth time the Donauinseln blog announces the traditional poll for the Danubian Island of the year.

You can vote for the three nominated islands between 13th October and 31st December 2021.

The aim of this contest is to focus attention on the often unknown islands of the Danube. Most of you probably visited the Seychelle Islands before any Danubian Island. This is the ninth poll, and we are happy we have started a tradition and more and more people will learn about these islands across the World.

The winners so far (you might noticed this is a Hungary-based blog):

2013. Kompkötő Island, Vác

2014. Helemba Island, Esztergom

2015. Kismarosi Island, Kismaros

2016. Szalki Island, Dunaújváros

2017. Csallóköz/Žitný ostrov, Slovakia

2018. Molnár Island, Soroksár, Budapest

2019. The Great Island of Rácalmás

2020. Kerekzátony Island, Ráckeve

Idén ismét két szigetet választottak ki a blog olvasói a kilenc szigetet felvonultató selejtező során; meggyőző fölénnyel a ráckevei Angyali-szigetet és második helyen befutóként az esztergomi Csitri-szigetet. A Dunai-szigetek blog idén a Türr István által megrajzolt, 90%-ban Magyarországon található Mohácsi-szigetet jelöli. Azaz a két egészen magyarországi sziget mellett egy szerb vagy horvát felségterületre átlógó sziget is indul a szavazáson.

ABC sorrendben mutatjuk be a jelölteket, amely egyben folyásirány szerinti sorrend is:

Angyali Island, Ráckeve

According to urban legend, the island was named after I. Matthias, king of Hungary, who called the landscape an angelic place when he sailed past it. The Angyali Island is a real island in the Soroksári-Danube with its stretched waters. This water stabilization has allowed the island to be populated since the construction of the lock at Tass. From the 1960s onwards, the island was gradually built up and a populous weekend community emerged, with more and more permanent settlers, who put their favorite island into the final round of voting by a clear majority. To the north is the Vesszőzátony Island. It is worth a visit, accessible by small boat from the Ráckeve side.

Csitri Island, Esztergom

The smallest island of Esztergom is the Csitri (=small girl in Hungarian), if you don't count the disappeared Turán Island next to it. It is interesting that it is bordered on both sides by a tributary of the Danube, as it is surrounded by the Körtvélyes and Nyáros islands in the archipelago of Tát. Its fish shape and interesting name can be found on old maps, but later its tributaries have been considerably narrowed by river regulation.

Mohácsi Island

Hungary's second-largest island is somewhat similar to the third largest island. The eastern branch of Mohácsi Island, the Baracskai-Duna, is channelized in the same way as the Soroksári-Duna at the Csepel Island. Until the 1870s it was a wilderness of floodplain forests alternating with marshy areas, although in the Middle Ages there were ten inhabited settlements. Its repopulation could only begin after the flood safety constructions. The agricultural landscape hides interesting landforms, such as a former bend on the "Riha" oxbow, a Roman fortress, and even a quarried limestone outcropping at Vári-puszta. It can be reached by ferry from the west and by several bridges from the east. The southern part is part of Serbia as far as Bezdán.

The poll will be closed at noon 31st December 2021. The results will be available in the first post of the year 2022!

survey software

11 October 2021

Definitive goodbye - Fifty pictures from the sunken Ada Kaleh island

IN HUNGARIAN

Waiting for the end. This could be the title of Ergün Koco's photo series on the island of Ada Kaleh, which was forced to submerge in relation to the construction of the Iron Gates I. dam. Ergün was a local Turk who used his camera to take one last photo of his homeland before the expulsion and perhaps collecting old family photos. Most of his pictures show a bygone idyll with storm clouds gathering behind. The island seems to be going about its daily routine, but on the other side of the Danube, infrastructure is being cut into the hillside to adapt to the new water level. Busy hands hammer away brick-by-brick the caissons of the island's eponymous fortress, while the wind chases the clouds across the sky. The waves of the Danube are still coming ashore, but the time is not far off when these waves will begin to lap higher and higher ground. They reach the coastal herbage, hug the stumps of felled trees, cautiously enter the thresholds of abandoned, demolished houses, and then take possession of the corridors of the fortress with ever-quickening steps, creeping up the walls like enemies. This process did not take place day by day; the vast reservoir was only gradually filled by the swollen river around 1969-1971. That is why it is impossible to give a precise date for the flooding of Ada Kaleh, since years may have passed between the last inhabitant taking to the water and the highest point of the island disappearing into the swollen river. Ergün Koco's pictures must therefore have been taken sometime in the late 1960s.

The author photographed all the buildings that were familiar and dear to him, even going up to the minaret and the neighboring hills, taking pictures of his family, relatives living and dead, the interior of their old house, familiar corners, and paths. He has nearly two hundred pictures, all of them imbued with a sense of definitive goodbye. By then, everyone knew that there was no longer any place for them on the island.

Finally, all was lost.