On January, 1954 the Council of Ministers lifted the status of a settlement founded in the XVIII century to that of a city - the last 40 years is thus only but a fraction of the history of Oroszlany. However, it is worth taking a look at the way that led to these days.
Nowadays, we think about a "town" as an administrative phenomena, but hundreds of years ago, this word was applied to settlemets that have developed near by a fortified regional center. Oroszlany can absolutely justly use the title, since the first know form of its name from 1383 is "Lionstone" (Oroszlanykew), which proves that there have been a stone building, a castle standing there in the XV. century.

We know from Gyula Kristo's book on Máté Csák that ranges of Vértes belonged to the family Csák from the end of the X. century. The generations spread over through the times, had one thing in common: the monastery at Vértesszentkereszt, which today belongs to Oroszlány. Excavations during the 60s proved that previously to the now ruined temple, there had already been a religious building in the XII century.

We don't know the exact date of its building, but we know that famous church of today, that replaced it was built by Ugrin, a member of the family Csák. The entrance of the temple was decorated with a stone-cut lion (the animal featured on the family crest) - a feature that could also be found decorating the near by stronghold. In 1864, István Czabik, the local town clerk wrote the following to Frigyes Pesty, a collector of historical place names: "According to a legend, this place received its current name from that of the stronghold, Oroszlánkő, Lionstone, which used to stand on a near by elevation, and which featured two stone cut lions above its gate." As for the local tradition, the small scale stronghold stood in the center of the old village on a hill, near the former Burga street, but in the literature of historic monuments, it has become one with the near by ruin, known today as the Csáki castle.

In 1701 a settlement treaty, signed and agreed by Antal Esterházy mentions Oroszlánkő-puszta. This proves that the stronghold and the newly founded village occupied the same territory. The continous history of our town regards this date as starting point.

We know three of the first settlers by name: "Mártony Kubicza, Márk Kubecska and Mártony Takács", as it appears in the treaty just mentioned. Since the first settlement, the village developed at a slow pace: in 1715 there were 19 serfs and 12 cotters here and from 1724, the village introduced its own parishial register of births.

The intersted can trace the XVIII-XIX century history of Oroszlány from the remarkable book of László Gyüszi, published in 1988. We get to know the economy of the village and the labourious life of the population. Besides the traditional livestock farming and plant-cultivation, the local people had to earn a living in other ways as well.
There were three alternatives: the people coming from forested areas were familiar with the methods of timbering. It is known that the slovakian wandering merchants strolled around the country with their finished and semi finished products.

The elder of Oroszlány still surely remeber the "Hamuház" (Ashhouse) balk. This name refers to the second additional form of industry. In the XVII-XIX centuries pearlash production used to be a considerable field of industry. This material was extracted from the ashes of plants and as a white crystallized lye played an important role in glaziery, soap-making canvas-whitening, medicine-production and also in manuring highlands, similar to thos around Oroszlány. In 1756 in Komárom county, in 4 places, including Oroszlány, with 16 boilers they produced 765 tons of pearlash.

The third profession, which made local people famous was lime-burning and lime transportationn. When the nearby village of Császár was obtained by the family Eszterházy, the population "was forced to dig out the chanells leading to the four fish ponds [...] and to bring 30000 bricks from Szák and the product of 6 lime-klin from Oroszlány for the building of a new sheep-fold." Lime producers had to go on long journeys to trade their lime for crops and food.

All these economical activities brought so little income barely enough for living. Due to the hardening conditions in the second half of the XIX century, the population of the village began to drop continously. Poverty also divided the society of the village, and this led to a rebellion in 1860. The national and religious differences caused strained relations, so it is no wonder that at the turn of the century many people crossed the Atlantic to start a new life in the americas. According to certain data from those times, some 855 people migrated from the district of Tata, most of them from Oroszlány.

After 1896, the new facilities of MÁK Co. (Hungarian State Mining Corporation) offerd new jobs, but the people from Oroszlány could only take on the lower-paying surface mining positions.

In 1904, the Tata Tóvárosi Hiradó gave news of that the county's general assembly discussed a resolution on selling the exploitation rights around village of Oroszlány.

So did the later decisive mining operations take a larger part in the development of the settlement.

After the Great Depression, mining restarted around Oroszlány in the 30's. This new situation led eventually to Oroszlány, a serf-city getting the status of a town.