The examination of land use and morphological characteristics of small settlements and the relationship between human presence through the example of the Őrség region of Hungary

Urban morphological research nowadays is a constantly widening field of study that explores multiple temporal and spatial layers, however, researches focus mainly on larger cities or districts, and less on the morphological analysis of settlements of smaller size. In Hungary though, a third of the settlements are villages with less than 500 inhabitants. The Őrség (Guard’s Country), which is the subject of the study, is an area that consists mostly of small villages along the western border of Hungary, which character has been significantly influenced by its unique landscape, geographical features, location and turbulent history. Due to its specific nature, a so-called ‘szer’ form of settlement has emerged in the area, which were isolated because of the political situation after World War II, however, after the collapse of the socialist regime (1990) they became vital again. In addition to the analysis of written sources, we carried out our research by using historical maps, valid regulatory plans and web mapping services (Google Earth, OpenTopoMap) in three related settlements of Őrség selected by us (Őriszentpéter, Ispánk, Nagyrákos). The number of historical maps available is very limited, hence there is a shortage of comparison of the exact spatial and structural changes of the area. Our goal is to gain insight into the changing tendencies of land use of the settlements, which are closely related to the farming traditions and social customs typical of Őrség, by digitizing and comparing the individual historical maps and to understand the processes of interdependence and cooperation of small settlements. The study presents the conclusions of the first steps of a prolonged research process, by combining an architectural and landscape architectural approach. Given that the presence of small villages is still typical in the fabric of Hungarian settlements, the experience of the research can be widely applied later.