Viniculture in Bakowa
What made the people of Bakowa famous was their wine-growing, for which they were
highly esteemed.
That must have been inherited from their ancestors from the Rhine, the Moselle and
the Neckar.
The clever people recognized that the volcanic soil of the uncultivated hill of Silas
must be suitable for viniculture.
Beside agriculture they started wine-growing with skill and success in the middle of the 19th century.
Products of high quality increased prosperity every year until the vine-louse, comming from the
USA, destroyed all the vineyards in the year 1890.
Luckily, the population did not only live on wine-growing, so they recovered after a few years
and started wine-growing again, this time with more resistant species.
Although each household had its wine in the cellar or the so called "Weinkammer", excessive wine consumption
was atypical.
Horst Wettel writes in his book "The Borough of Busias" in 1919, page 45 "For the people of Bakowa that kind of
abstinence was more laudable that doesnīt use what is at a personīs disposal. Because it is written in the book
of wisdom that wine and women are leading the wise man astray. Therefore he wants others to consume his
product, takes his money to the bank and hardly makes use of the local gift of god".