Hungarians - Settlements

Geographical conditions influenced the development of Regionally varied settlement patterns, along with many Historical events, like the long Turkish occupation and Habsburg political and economic domination. In addition to the populous peasant towns, in rural Hungary there is still evidence of tanyas, or single isolated farmsteads, tegular villages with geometrically designed streets, and irregular streetless villages that were settled by hads (agnatic kin groups) and nagycsaládok (extended families) in clustered and random style. Until a relatively recent attempt to integrate all buildings and farmyards into one section, in the northern and Central parts of the Great Hungarian Plain most villages and boroughs had kertes, or kétbeltelkes settlements, meaning that the dwellings and farmyards were separated from one another.