ABSTRACT
Jozsef Kakas, one of the hosts of the authors at Atany, related that as a schoolboy he often loitered around the village on summer evenings with his friends. Throughout the community the idea that Atany is located at the center of the world is prevalent. Adults mention it jokingly and remember that other villages nearby make the same boast. Atany lies at the border of the region of settlements typical of the Great Plain. It belongs to an area of transition where the number of the inhabitants and the extent of their fields are intermediate between the tiny villages of the northern Highlands and the “peasant cities” of the Plain. The first appearance of the name “Atany” occurs in a document dated 1407, but the village may have existed long before this time. The community occupies the same site on which it was constructed by its medieval founders.
