„There is a Hungarian culture that can and is claiming place
in the universal culture of mankind”

Herman Ottó

History

Its name’s origins are obscure: there are opinions that say it is formed from the noun „árok” (ditch) or maybe from a family name. It is mentioned first in 1267.

Interesting facts, places of occurence of artefacts

Arka is situated among beautiful volcanic hills in the place of a lake that dried out. Magoska and Kerekhegy used to be working volcanoes, the so-called „devil-bite” also shows this: the place of gases exploding from the hot lava remained in the cooling andezite that was becoming more and more solid. As a consequence of the geyser processes, plant reains were preserved in flint-stones, and flinted trees are also present in this area. The stones created during million years were very favourable for the prehistoric people: during the excavations many tools of a stone-tool workshop were found from 28 000 years ago, and also clues of a 16 000 years old settlement were found at the Tó hill and Leány hill. The stone ditches of Tó hill probably served as forts around the village.

Arka-Herzsarét prehistoric place of artefact occurence: according to the C14 isotope examination the stone tools found in the area date back to 17000 years before.

The small village has grown into a nice holiday village in the past years.

Kuruc stories

Who were the kuruc people?

Nagy serege vót Rákóczinak, kuruc vót akkor mindenki. Egy kém meg is mondta a hasburgi császárnak, hogy ű látta a kurucoknak a kargyát. A vót ráírva: halál minden hasburgira! Itt az erdőkbe, hegyekbe laktak a kurucok. Mindenütt nagy tüzeket raktak, amerre táboroztak.

De nem volt akármilyen ember Rákóczi sem, ahogy egy másik történet megőrizte alakját: Nagy ember vót. Eccer elakadt a hintója, a kocsisa meg nem tudott oszt mit csinálni. Hiába húztatták vóna ökrökkel a hintót, csak nem boldogultak. No oszt azt mondja Rákóczi: - Hé, menjetek arrébb! Akkor oszt nekilendült a hintónak, oszt úgy húzták ki a lovak.

Monuments, sights

The reformat church was built between 1794 and 98 without a tower, that was only added in 1911.

Roman catholic church

Tó-hill

Donkey road

Hussite house

Folk painters

The country-crossing Blue Tour leads across the village, it connects the castles of Regéc and Boldogkő.

Twin town

Its twin town if Alsólánc / Nižný Lánec/, that can be found in Upper Hungary.

The present

The beautifully implemented stone stage and community square is handed over in Arka, at the court of the youth camp in a breathtaking environment, where both visitors and inhabitants will be able to hold different ceremonies and events here.

 The developments are handed over on 17th of JUly, 2010 with the performance of Mario, the harmonica-player.