Restored Zobor Vineyards - Great Grandfather and the Phylloxera Plague

Me, dad and Uncle Zoltán at the Paulik family
graves in Nitra. Photo taken in 1979.

My great grandparents on my father's side lived in the north of thousand-year-old Hungary, what is now Slovakia. Andor Paulik was my dad's grandfather. (My dad and his brother Zoltán "Hungarianized" the family name to Palotás in 1933.) My dad fled Hungary after the war (the second one) and Uncle Zoltán stayed behind.

My uncle liked ferreting out family records. Among my father's papers is a copy of a Slovak newspaper article from May of 1978. It is about Andor Paulik. My uncle was the source for the article. I know Uncle Zoltán wanted to preserve a bit of history in Upper Hungary (Felvidék or "Upper Region" in Hungarian), so he submitted the information to the newspaper.

As the concluding paragraph indicates, Zoltán also wanted to help preserve the Paulik family grave site where Andor Paulik (1840-1927), his wife Anna Pruzsinszky (1836-1910), and three of their children, Andor (1876-1880), Philmen (1873-1886), and Gyula (1869-1887) were buried.

Here is my translation of the Slovak newspaper article.

RESTORED ZOBOR VINEYARDS

In the second half of the last century, the most dangerous vineyard blight came to us from North America — Phylloxera aphid, which destroyed vineyards not only at home [in Slovakia] but throughout Europe. The city of Nitra was surprised to learn from a circular from the Ministry of Economy that Phylloxera infestation was found in nearby Klosterneuburg in Austria. The circular reached the city hall in Nitra on 21 October 1874. Despite great efforts, within a few years the surrounding vineyards were devastated.

It was a terrible blow for Nitra. Mountain villages Horno-i Dolnozoborska sought help from the Vineyards Commission to attack the problem, but they were helpless. Members of the Commission — K. Riszer, A. Misz, K. Mayer and St. Čačka — recommended the chairman of the Commission, István Bangha, to act for the good.

Some vineyards were neglected and abandoned, while others contemplated the destruction of their own vines in an effort to halt the spread of the infestation. Only a few decided to revive their vineyards by uprooting the vines that had been attacked and replacing them with more vigorous root stocks from America.

Most credit for restoring the vineyards belongs to Andrew Paulik, who in 1882 restored the episcopal vineyards with varieties of Klevner, Vlašsky riesling and Burgundy grapes on American roots. Assistance also came from America in 1886 in the forms of consultant František Szecsi, who had developed excellent table grape varieties, and Sadecky, who had developed new resistant varieties of root stocks that had been launched into mass production in America.

The forestry engineer Andrew Paulik was born the son of a miller in the bishopric county of Nitra on November 29, 1840, in Podvazi, Povazska Bystrica. After completing middle school in Czech Tešíně, he attended the forestry technical school in Sovinci, Bruntal district, and interned at the Bytča estates. After graduating from the forestry school in 1860, he helped to map and measure the Strečnanske estates, then to survey the estates of Likavske Castle, first as an assistant engineer, then as an independent engineer. For nearly 10 years, he managed the forests of Drietom, and then he moved to Nitra where he worked as a forest engineer at the Nitra bishopric until he retired on April 1, 1911. In Nitra, he lived in the first floor of the house at no. 16 Hraclnova Street, but it was mostly a winter house in the courtyard terrace, accessible only from Vazilova Street. Summers he spent in his vineyard in Martinská [Marton] valley. Of his four sons, only one lived to manhood. Two died prematurely and the third was accidently killed at age 18 in a hunting accident near Radošina. Today his grandson, Zoltán Palotás, lives in Budapest.

Andrew Paulik was not only a forestry engineer, but also an excellent grower of fruit trees and wine grapes. He died in Nitra and is buried in a family tomb near the northern wall, not far from the corner of the cemetery.

All who today manage vineyards or appreciate the harvest and the soul of a good Zobor wine should remember the debt we owe to Andrew Paulik. After his death in 1927, his friends and relatives wanted to appreciate his good work by locating [his vineyard] in Martinská Valley, but this plan was ruined by the economic crisis [of the Great Depression]. Today, hardly anybody remembers A. Paulik, so it is important to keep his memory at least in the place of his subdued rest.