HISTORY

Lókút, also known as Rossbrunn, is a small village of about 500 inhabitants in the High Bakony. Although most of the village is hidden in a long valley, it is the second highest village in the Bakony. From the gardens you can see Lake Balaton and the rapeseed fields of the Somogy Hills. Its geographical location combines the character of a hamlet with easy accessibility. Veszprém is 20 km away, Zirc 11 km.

There was a time when the town was a magnet for young people, but in recent years this trend has been reversed, with young people discovering the place and wanting to raise their children in a healthy, beautiful environment. Today, of the 500 or so inhabitants, 80 are under the age of fourteen. We are trying to plan the life of Squirrel Lane in a way that uses the freshness brought by young people to create community values. One of our key goals is to implement programmes in which residents are actively involved, rather than consumers.

One such series is the Pallet Picnic we launched last year, where families came together to make simple outdoor furniture, cook together, talk, and plan for the future. And such was the Garden Cinema, which became such a fixed summer programme that we didn't even need to advertise it, every Friday (if it wasn't raining) families and even older people brought in blankets and snacks.

It was a great pleasure to be able to support the start-up of civic groups. Small clubs have been formed (local history, handicrafts, pensioners, board games) in addition to the formal associations that were previously registered.

The village was not repopulated but a new settlement in 1759. The first 20 Slovak families were commissioned by János Esterházy to establish the settlement. Soon, however, German men and their families arrived and started building a new glassworks in Óbánya in 1771, and then started glass production in it. In time, the village became overgrown. Hard-working families, proud of their tidy surroundings, formed a close-knit community whose members can trace their family tree back over two hundred years. In the second half of the 20th century, successive traumas of displacement left a deep scar on this community. It is this wound that the twinning with Hebertshausen, established in 1994, aims to heal. This municipality near Munich took in the majority of the displaced people from Lókút.

Lókút used to be an important stopover for travellers coming from Székesfehérvár - Veszprém and going via Zirc to Győr or via Bakonybele to Pápa. Legend has it that they stopped here at the well in the Bakony forest to refresh themselves and gather strength for their journey ahead.

Why shouldn't Lókút be such a cultural stopover today?