Somoly

Somoly is a completely unexplored Hungarian village, whose ruins remain, located on the border of Regöly and Szakály, on the section of main road 65 between Szakály and Tamási.

Origin of the name

In the Middle Ages the village known as Somogy derived its name from the noun 'som' with the suffix -gy attached, referring to an area rich in som. The name form Somoly appeared in the 17th century, formed from the medieval name by a change of ending, and this name form may be connected with the Roma population that settled here at that time.

History

Its name was first mentioned in 1389 in a charter of King Sigismund in the form Somogy, when the village was granted to Miklós, son of the late Count Miklós Újlaki, and to his relative Miklós, master Bertalan. Later, on 2 June 1407, Ozorai Pipó, chief treasurer, temes and salt chamber official, and his brother, Florence Scolaris Máté, received the village of Somogy together with the estates Dalmad, Marton, Kövesd and Somodor from King Sigismund for their services. In 1425 Ozorai Pipó gave the other half of Somogy village to the Fehérvár provost, having obtained permission to be buried in the coronation church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin. In 1542, during the runic‑script census, Palatich János had 23 gates in the village, while three gates stood empty. In the following year, 1543, its inhabitants fled from the Turkish campaign.

The village was depopulated during the Ottoman occupation; the name of the Somogy village belonging to the Tamási nahija reappears only in 1580, when 29 married and 17 unmarried men were listed as residents. The Hungarian population presumably fled or perished during the battles around the Fifteen Years' War. Sometime at the turn of the 17th–18th centuries it became permanently depopulated, and in 1658 it was already mentioned as a village with Roma inhabitants, under the name Somoly.

In 1715 Count József Eszterházy was the owner of the area, who at that time wrote in the settlement letter of Regöly before the resettlement:

"knowing..., that... my sufficient land and border will not be Regöly's wasteland, therefore I wish to annex my two wastelands named Somoly and Kistaha to it."

In 1721 the Regöly church visitation protocol attached to the Regöly border mentioned the ruins of a very old church on the wasteland called Somos. According to the protocol the sanctuary of the church was almost completely destroyed: its northern side stood at the height of a man, the southern side was twice as high, the tower facing west remained in two‑thirds, but the name of its patron saint has been forgotten over time.

Gyula Mészáros carried out minor excavations around the church ruin's tower in the 1960s, which was followed by structural reinforcement. Staff of the Móric Wosinsky Museum also conducted excavations on the site, from which we know that with its 17‑metre‑long nave it could have belonged among the more notable churches. According to András K. Németh the church may have been built at the end of the 15th century.