Szigetcsép is a village withh 2400 inhabitants in Pest county, in the middle of Csepel island, on the band of Danube at Ráckeve, some thirty km from Budapest.
The surroundings of the settlement are rich in Copper and Iron Age archaeological finds, including tools, weapon sand a fire-place. These objects prove that the area of the village was inhabited in ancient times. The name of the village was first mentioned in a written document in 1238 as „ Chepteluk”. In the late 13th century the village was owned by the Budavár nuns. According to a document from the mid-16th century the village was registered as a desolate area. Its residents moved to Tököl, but they kept cultivating it from there. Towards the end of the 17th century the residents filtered back to the village.
The settlement ruinedunder the turkish rule, in the first half of the 18th century arrived Serb and German settlers. In 1736 the local Serbs erected their church. In the same century Jenő Savoyai encouraged Nürnberg and Württemberg Germans to move to the area, they acclimatized the vine growing in this land.
The inhabitants of Szigetcsép had to move away several times because of the overflows of Danube. Because of the
repetitive floods occupied the Serbs in the 1760’s their present-day territory of the settlement, and they built up their church in plait-style, which tower was ready in 1828. The Germans started to build their church in baroque-style in 1755. • Its tower was buit in 1857 and its nave was lengthened at this time. After the flood in 1838 occupied the
village its presentday position.
At the end of the 20th century the population of the village is some 2,000, many of whom are Serb or German. Szigetcsép has a fairly developed system of infrastructure: the electricity, gas and water systems are used by 75% of the households. The construction of the sewage system is still ahead. The village has a kindergarten and a primary school, as a 9,000 volume library.
