Kazincbarcika is an industrial town in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county, Northern

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning 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 ...

. It lies in the valley of the river

Sajó The Sajó ( , Hungarian) or Slaná ( Slovak) is a river in Slovakia and Hungary. Its length is 229 km, of which 110 km is in Slovakia. Its source is in the Stolica Mountains range of the Slovak Ore Mountains. It flows through the ...

, away from the county capital,

Miskolc Miskolc ( , , ; Czech language, Czech and sk, Miškovec; german: Mischkolz; yi, script=Latn, Mishkoltz; ro, Mișcolț) is a city in northeastern Hungary, known for its heavy industry. With a population of 161,265 (1 Jan 2014) Miskolc is the ...

History

Kazincbarcika was created during the Socialist industrialization, when several villages were unified with the aim of creating an industrial city to provide workers for the newly built Borsodi Vegyi Kombinát (a predecessor of today's BorsodChem). The village of ''Sajókazinc'' was first mentioned in 1240. It was a mainly agricultural village until 1850, when the first

coal mine Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

was opened. The village of Barcika came into existence with the unification of two villages, Upper- and Lower-Barcika. Although a mine was opened nearby,

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...

remained the villagers' main occupation until the 1920s, when a large

power plant A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the electricity generation, generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an el ...

was built. After World War II, Sajókazinc and Barcika were united under the name Kazincbarcika. In 1954 it was granted town status, and the nearby village of Berente was annexed. The town already had 11,000 residents. BorsodChem, founded in 1949, took an active role in developing the town, and its job opportunities drew people from all over the country. In the 1970s Kazincbarcika already had 30,000 residents. In the 1980s mining and

heavy industry Heavy industry is an industry that involves one or more characteristics such as large and heavy products; large and heavy equipment and facilities (such as heavy equipment, large machine tools, huge buildings and large-scale infrastructure); o ...

faced a

crisis A crisis ( : crises; : critical) is either any event or period that will (or might) lead to an unstable and dangerous situation affecting an individual, group, or all of society. Crises are negative changes in the human or environmental affair ...

, and the rate of unemployment was high. The district of Berente separated from the city and became an independent village, mainly due to the fact that Borsodchem was situated in this part of the town, but the residents felt more of its disadvantages than its advantages. Berente's secession from Kazincbarcika led to the newly independent village receiving the local taxes paid by the factory; it made Berente one of the richest villages in the country.

Notable people

Béni Egressy Béni Egressy (; born Galambos Benjámin; 21 April 1814 – 17 July 1851 in Sajókazinc) was a Hungarian composer, librettist, translator and actor. He created a number of popular melodic compositions, including the one to Mihály Vörösmart ...

composer (born in 1814, as son of the Protestant pastor of the church of Sajókazinc.) * Péter Odrobéna footballer (born in 1985) * László Kleinheisler (born 8 April 1994) is a Hungarian football

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Twin towns – sister cities

Kazincbarcika is twinned with: *

Burgkirchen an der Alz Burgkirchen an der Alz is a municipality in the district of Altötting, in Bavaria, Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe afte ...

, Germany * Dimitrovgrad, Bulgaria *

Knurów Knurów (; german: Knurow; szl, Knurōw) is a city near Katowice in Silesia, southern Poland. Knurów borders on the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union, a metropolis with a population of two million. Knurów is located in the Silesian Highlands, ...

, Poland *

Revúca Revúca (; formerly ''Veľká Revúca'' in Slovak; german: Groß-Rauschenbach; hu, Nagyrőce) is a town in Banská Bystrica Region, Slovakia. Revúca is the seat of Revúca District. Etymology The name is of Slovak origin and was initially t ...

, Slovakia *

Sânnicolau Mare Sânnicolau Mare (; hu, Nagyszentmiklós; german: Großsanktnikolaus; sr, Велики Семиклуш, Veliki Semikluš; Banat Bulgarian: ''Smikluš'') is a town in Timiș County, Romania, and the westernmost of the country. Located in the Ba ...

, Romania *

Świdnica Świdnica (; german: Schweidnitz; cs, Svídnice; szl, Świdńica) is a city in south-western Poland in the region of Silesia. As of 2019, it has a population of 57,014 inhabitants. It lies in Lower Silesian Voivodeship, being the seventh large ...

, Poland

References

External links

* in Hungarian, English, German and Chinese
Pictures of the history of the city

Aerial photographs
{{authority control Populated places in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County Socialist planned cities Planned cities in Hungary