Megyer Vineyard

Megyer Hill was already planted with vines in the Árpád Age (9-14th century) as proven by the 1248 Béla IV’s deed of gift in which he gifted the Megyer Hill vines to the Premonstratensian Order of Saint Martin. The extensive vineyard generally had several owners. In 1354 a Sárospatak noble left his large area to the Pauline monastery of Saint Giles in Sátoraljaújhely.

Monastic ownership continued until 1526 when the influential aristocratic landowning Perényi family occupied the land and pushed out the previous monastic owners. Following the early end of the noble Perényi line, the land was owned to other aristocrats before it passed to the Lórántffy dynasty in 1596. Zsuzsanna Lórántffy managed the vineyard until she gifted it to the Reformed College in Sárospatak in 1644.

During the Counter Reformation the majority of the land was given to the Jesuit monastery in Sárospatak or returned to the Paulines in Sátoraljaújhely. Smaller parcels were part of famous historical family estates.

After the dissolution of the Jesuit order in 1773, their areas of vineyards became part of the Sárospatak Reformed church and thus owned by the Reformed College. his ownership structure remained right up until 1950 when the vineyard became state property as part of the Communist takeover. It remained in state hands until 1992.