Festetics Palace - Keszthely, Hungary

Location:

GPS coordinates: Latitude 46°46'15", Longitude 17°14'29" (N46 46.25 - E17 14.48) Map

Carriage Museum of Keszthely, Hungarian bride coach from around 1770

In the context of horse-drawn vehicles (e.g. carriages and wagons) the English "coach" word is derived from the Hungarian word "kocsi" that means: "of Kocs", which is a village in Hungary. At the age of King Matthias in the 15th century the settlement was already an important post town and mail coach station between Budapest (Buda and Pest) and Vienna, Austria. At that time a new light and fast carriage was developed in Hungary, which spread very quickly across Europe, thanks to its obvious benefits and among others to the nephew of Queen Beatrix. The new vehicle was names after Kocs settlement. There was a special suspension among the innovations and advantages, it helped to travel more comfortable. In addition, due to the better rolling of the wheels the fast vehicle could carry even eight passengers with a single horse, and even for longer distance.

Today still the various versions of the Hungarian "kocsi" word is used for the light carriages in many European languages: in English "coach", in German "Kutsche", in Spanish, Portuguese and French "coche", in Catalan "cotxe", in Italian "cocchio", in Dutch "koets", in Flemish "goetse", in Polish "kocz", in Czech "kočár", in Slovak "koč" or "kočiar", in Ukrainian "коч", in Croatian and Slovenian "kočija", in Serbian "кочије", in Swedish "kusk", and in Kurdish "koçk". Even more interesting that in Asia Minor and in the Caucasus the light horse-drawn wagon is simply called "madjar", so practically "Magyar" or "Hungarian".