Summary: Totkomlos is a small town with a peculiar history in the southeast of Hungary. It dates back 250 years, when Slovak families looking for work settled in the area. Now it has a mixed population of Magyars and Slovaks. Its cultural and natural heritage has rich potentials. However, it also epitomises the problems that afflict rural Hungary today. Small towns and villages are still waiting to see the much hoped-for fruits of the end of communism, and EU membership. Much of Hungary remains rural, with 60% of all municipalities, or 3.3 million people, one in three inhabitants, belonging in this category. This segment of the population is hard-hit by a long drawn-out crisis in agriculture, slow infrastructural development, unemployment, poor education, ageing and migration into cities. In rural Hungary, faith and traditions are fading away, and once they are gone, they are difficult to restore. As it happened to a number of other small towns and villages, Totkomlos is also facing the option of becoming a "white spot" on the map.