Mocsa 4.42

Mocsa is a village in Komárom-Esztergom county, Hungary.Early historyThe village has existed for at least 770 years; it is first mentioned in 1237-1240 under the name of Mocha in the notes of Albeus, dean of Nitra, who had been asked by Béla IV of Hungary to catalogue the territories of the villages in the area.During the Árpád Dynasty, the village was a property of the King; income from the land was used to maintain the Queen's court. The King's hunters and falconers lived in Mocsa.In 1291, Fennena of Kujavia, the first wife of Andrew III of Hungary, granted the village's territory to the Archbishop of Esztergom. From this point on, the land was largely the property of the bishops.During the reign of Béla IV, Mocsa had about four hundred and fifty residents. The villages in the area were mostly razed to the ground during the Tatar invasions, but the survivors helped to repopulate Mocsa by grouping together. Through the centuries the village was attacked on more than one occasion. Its survival is due to its location: a swampy, weedy, low-lying land that was unattractive to the invaders who preferred to travel over hilly lands that gave them a wide view of the places below. Mocsa's location also provided plenty of hiding places for the people and their animals. In times of draught, the residents survived because of their close proximity to water.After the Battle of Mohács, the country suffered with years of taxation and occupation by the Ottoman Turks. Many villages died out entirely, and their territories were connected to the surviving villages—Mocsa being one of the survivors.