Dunaföldvár is a town in

Tolna County Tolna (, ; ) is an administrative county (Comitatus (Kingdom of Hungary), comitatus or vármegye) in present-day Hungary as it was in the former Kingdom of Hungary. It lies in central Hungary, on the west bank of the river Danube. It shares borde ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

. Its residents are

Hungarians Hungarians, also known as Magyars, are an Ethnicity, ethnic group native to Hungary (), who share a common Culture of Hungary, culture, Hungarian language, language and History of Hungary, history. They also have a notable presence in former pa ...

, with minority of

Serbs The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Southeastern Europe who share a common Serbian Cultural heritage, ancestry, Culture of Serbia, culture, History of Serbia, history, and Serbian lan ...

History

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

gold hoard of jewellery was found between

Paks Paks is a small town in Tolna (county), Tolna county, in the south of Hungary, on the right bank of the Danube River, 100 km south of Budapest. Paks as a former agricultural settlement is now the home of the only Hungarian Paks Nuclear Pow ...

and Dunaföldvár on the banks of the

Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

in the nineteenth century. The treasure is now in the collections of the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

.British Museum Collection
/ref> Dunaföldvár was an important settlement at the time of the Hungarian conquest, and experienced its golden age during the 14th and 15th centuries. It was first mentioned in the work of the Turkish chronicler Sinan Chaus, who described the history of the 1543 expedition. However, the castle was destroyed in the autumn of 1686 after it was set ablaze by Turkish troops. In 1703, the legendary

Kuruc Kuruc (, plural ''kurucok''), also spelled kurutz, refers to a group of armed anti- Habsburg insurgents in the Kingdom of Hungary between 1671 and 1711. Over time, the term kuruc has come to designate Hungarians who advocate strict national inde ...

general, General János Bottyán, occupied the castle, which became famous as the bridgehead of the Transdanubian campaign. The castle was restored at the beginning of the 19th century, and in 1974 restoration was concluded on the building according to the plans of Ferenc Mendele.

Sightseeing

Besides the castle, the city also boasts numerous churches and chapels. One of the most famous churches, the St. Ilona’s Roman Catholic parish was built in 1725 in Baroque style. Its tower is 37 meters high and 9.6 meters wide. In 1757 it was struck by lightning, burned down, and 100 years later, in 1858, it became the victim of another devastating fire. It was severely damaged in 1944, but the temple survived, and remains one of the gems of the city. Visitors can also visit the Joseph-Danube Bridge which connects the Transdanubia region to the Great Plain. After two years of construction, the bridge was opened in November, 1930. The Germans bombed the bridge during World War II and it was rebuilt after the war under the supervision of engineer Gustav Faber.

Demographics

As of the 2022 census, the town is 88.8% Hungarian, 1.1%

Gypsy {{Infobox ethnic group , group = Romani people , image = , image_caption = , flag = Roma flag.svg , flag_caption = Romani flag created in 1933 and accepted at the 1971 World Romani Congress , po ...

. 31.6% of its inhabitants are

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

, 5.4% are

Reformed Reform is beneficial change. Reform, reformed or reforming may also refer to: Media * ''Reform'' (album), a 2011 album by Jane Zhang * Reform (band), a Swedish jazz fusion group * ''Reform'' (magazine), a Christian magazine Places * Reform, Al ...

, 1.4%

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

, and 16%

nondenominational A non-denominational person or organization is one that does not follow (or is not restricted to) any particular or specific religious denomination. The term has been used in the context of various faiths, including Jainism, Baháʼí Faith, Zoro ...

Twin towns — sister cities

Dunaföldvár is twinned with: Bronze Age jewelleryDSCF6607

* Weikersheim, Germany * Ossona, Italy

Notable people

Piroska Oszoli Piroska Oszoli (21 January 1919 – 22 March 2017) was a Hungarian painter, is known as "The lover of the Danube and the beautiness". She worked especially as applied to En plein air, plein air Landscape art, landscape painting. Life Piroska O ...

(1919-2017) painter, The Lover of Danube

References

External links

Street map
Populated places in Tolna County Serb communities in Hungary Populated places on the Danube {{Tolna-geo-stub