Körösnagyharsány (''Körös-Nagy-Harsány'') is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

Békés County Békés (, , ) is an administrative division (county or ''vármegye'') in south-eastern Hungary, on the border with Romania. It shares borders with the Hungarian counties Csongrád-Csanád, Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok, and Hajdú-Bihar. The capital ...

, in the

Southern Great Plain The Southern Great Plain ( ) is a statistical ( NUTS 2) region of Hungary. It is part of Great Plain and North (NUTS 1) region. The Southern Great Plain includes the counties of Bács-Kiskun, Békés, and Csongrád-Csanád. The region is in the ...

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

of south-east

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 ...

Geography

Körösnagyharsány is a small village in Békés county, close to the Romanian border. It covers an

area Area is the measure of a region's size on a surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while '' surface area'' refers to the area of an open surface or the boundary of a three-di ...

of 19.93 km² and had a population of 698 in 2002.

History

The name of the village is originated by scholars from the time of the

Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin The Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin, also known as the Hungarian conquest or the Hungarian land-taking (), was a series of historical events ending with the settlement of the Hungarians in Central Europe in the late 9th and early 10t ...

. Right before the home-taking conquest, three

Kabar The Kabars (), also known as Qavars (Qabars) or Khavars, were Khazar rebels who joined Magyar tribes and the Rus' Khaganate confederations in the 9th century CE. Sources The Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII is the principal source of the Kaba ...

tribes joined the Hungarians, one of the names of those tribes was ''Harsány''. Körösnagyharsány was first mentioned at the beginning of the 14th century in book Váradi Regestrum, in which one of the inhabitants of the village was summoned to an ordeal. In 1234 King András the II. was granted to Mester Demeter from genus Aba nemzetség. The name of the settlement at that time was written as ''Egyházasharsán'' (=Harsán with Temple). In 1241/1242, during the

Mongol invasion of Europe From the 1220s to the 1240s, the Mongol Empire, Mongols conquered the Turkic peoples, Turkic states of Volga Bulgaria, Cumania and Iranian peoples, Iranian state of Alania, and various principalities in Eastern Europe. Following this, they began ...

the village was destroyed, but soon rebuilt by its former inhabitants. For its faithful service Körösharsány was given the rank City of Hajdu by

István Bocskai Stephen Bocskai or Bocskay (, ; 1 January 155729 December 1606) was Prince of Transylvania and Hungary from 1605 to 1606. He was born to a Hungarian nobility, Hungarian noble family. His father's estates were located in the Eastern Hungarian Kin ...

. In 1660, during the Turkish conquest of Hungary, the village was completely destroyed again by Habsburgs and Ottomans. After the destruction, the village was rebuilt on the left bank of the river Sebes-Körös, since when the city lies at its present place. The settlement was mentioned later as ''Nagy- és Kisharsány'' (Large and Small Harsány) as a land of Capital Cathedral of

Nagyvárad Oradea (, , ; ; ) is a city in Romania, located in the Crișana region. It serves as the administrative county seat, seat of Bihor County and an economic, social, and cultural hub in northwestern Romania. The city lies between rolling hills on ...

(present Oradea, Romania), that was still possessed it at the first half of the 19th century. Later, at the beginning of the 20th century Mrs. Gustav Elek had bigger properties worth mentioning. Before the

Treaty of Trianon The Treaty of Trianon (; ; ; ), often referred to in Hungary as the Peace Dictate of Trianon or Dictate of Trianon, was prepared at the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace Conference. It was signed on the one side by Hungary ...

, Körösnagyharsány belonged to

Bihar county Bihar was an administrative county (Comitatus (Kingdom of Hungary), comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary and a county of the Eastern Hungarian Kingdom and Principality of Transylvania (1570–1711), Principality of Transylvania (since the 16th c ...

, district ''Cséffa''. After the

in 1920, Körösnagyharsány – which originally belonged to the sphere of influence of

– became a border settlement. After being cut from Nagyvárad, losing its trade and human connections with its vital city, started a process of depopulation.

The history of Jewry and their graveyard in Körösnagyharsány

For about one and a half centuries (1780s-1944), a small religious Jewish community, consisting mainly of small shopkeepers, innkeepers and tenant-farmers, lived in the settlement. In 1870, 47 Jews lived here. They built houses, established a graveyard and became an integral part of the society and life of the village. After the Treaty of Trianon the Jewish community slowly started to diminish, and then their fate was sealed by the Holocaust. Four person were deported from the village: ''Móric Grósz'' (1887–1944), ''Jolán Grósz'' (1899–1944), ''Olga Grünhut'' (1905-1944/45) and ''Gyöngyi Grünhut'' (1925-1944/45). They died in concentration camps. During the time of deportation, though, members of several Jewish families from the countryside were hidden in the village.

Ethnic groups

In 1910, out of 1,411 inhabitants, a survey found 1336 Hungarians and 73

Romanians Romanians (, ; dated Endonym and exonym, exonym ''Vlachs'') are a Romance languages, Romance-speaking ethnic group and nation native to Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. Sharing a Culture of Romania, ...

. Religious spread was 1,288

Calvinist Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Protestantism, Continenta ...

, 73 Orthodox Christians and 19

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

. The village is now mainly inhabited by Calvinist Hungarian families. Based on a survey made in 2001, 92% of the inhabitants of the village was Hungarian, 7%

Gipsy {{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 ...

, 1%

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

.A 2001-es népszámlálás nemzetiségi adatsora
/ref>

References

External links