Paper short abstract:

The Őrség National Reserve was founded on the borderland of Hungary in the socialist period. The role of the region was reinterpreted in two different ways (modernisation and environmental protection). The aim of the paper is analysing the different conceptions, and the process of heritage making.

Paper long abstract:

The Őrség National Reserve was founded on the borderland of southwestern Hungary. In the 20th century the fragmented settlement patterns made the infrastructural improvements and the establishment of the institutional network more difficult, and especially in the socialist period the villages of the area - those were under strict border surveillance until late sixties - have been left out the nationwide concept of community development which conserved an unfavorable situation in the region. The role of the region was reinterpreted again in the 1970s. Following socialist modernization, the party and state apparatus in the county and the township was of the opinion that industrial development and the expansion of the farming of cooperatives should be considered the solutions. The other conception was characterised by the human ecological change of views, which spread all over the socialist countries in the seventies. The Őrség Natural Reserve was established under the aegis of the Hungarian Office of Environmental Protection. The protection covered natural floras, the fauna, the natural waters, the landscape and the traditions. This process can be analysed as a heritage making practice which involved several other actors. An intensive interest shown by ethnographers was followed, from the late 50s on, by the attention of the National Office of Historical Monuments, which was supposed to protect folk monuments, the various concepts of county and township offices and tourism. The objective of the paper is analysing the different conceptions, presenting what conflicts there were between the principal figures of the local economic-political life.