Kecel is a town in Bács-Kiskun county, in southern

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 ...

Croats The Croats (; hr, Hrvati ) are a South Slavic ethnic group who share a common Croatian ancestry, culture, history and language. They are also a recognized minority in a number of neighboring countries, namely Austria, the Czech Republic, ...

in Hungary call this town ''Kecelj''.

History

The first documents mentioning Kecel date back to 1198. Like many other Hungarian towns, Kecel has lost its population during the Turkish Conquest. On April 22, 1734 Gábor Patachich, the bishop of Kalocsa issued papers reestablishing the town of Kecel. At the time, most people made their living by

herding Herding is the act of bringing individual animals together into a group (herd), maintaining the group, and moving the group from place to place—or any combination of those. Herding can refer either to the process of animals forming herds in ...

. However, the rising population made this extremely hard, so people committed themselves to

farming 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 peopl ...

which still remains the main

industry Industry may refer to: Economics * Industry (economics), a generally categorized branch of economic activity * Industry (manufacturing), a specific branch of economic activity, typically in factories with machinery * The wider industrial sector ...

in Kecel. In 1802 a number of new buildings were built including: the

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

church, the Town Hall, the first

school A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes comp ...

, post office, and the police and fire stations. The

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

also reached Kecel. Kecel received town rights in 1993. The town was served by the

Kiskőrös Kiskőrös ( sk, Malý Kereš / Kiškereš, yi, קישקעריש ''Kishkerish'', german: Körösch, hr, Kireš) is a town in Bács-Kiskun, Hungary. Kiskőrös is situated between the Danube and Tisza rivers at around . Sándor Petőfi, the nati ...

–

Kalocsa Kalocsa (; hr, Kaloča or ''Kalača''; sr, Kaloča or Калоча; german: Kollotschau) is a town in Bács-Kiskun county, Hungary. It lies south of Budapest. It is situated in a marshy but highly productive district, near the left bank of the ...

railway line, operated by

MÁV Hungarian State Railways ( hu, Magyar Államvasutak, MÁV) is the Hungarian national railway company, with divisions "MÁV START Zrt." (passenger transport), "MÁV-Gépészet Zrt." (maintenance), "MÁV-Trakció Zrt." and "MÁV Cargo Zrt" (freig ...

, until its closure in 2007. The Pintér Művek Military Museum and Park (), which houses a large collection of military equipment and vehicles, is located on the outskirts of the town in the territory of a metal works factory of the same name.

Demographics

As of the

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

of 2001, there were 9,259 people and 3,600 households.

Twin towns – sister cities

Kecel is twinned with: * Schwarzenbruck, Germany (1991) *

Lupeni Lupeni (; German: ''Schylwolfsbach'', Hungarian: ''Lupény'') is a mining city in the Jiu Valley in Hunedoara County, Romania, in the historical region of Transylvania. It is one of the oldest and largest cities in the Jiu Valley. It is located ...

, Romania (2009)

References

External links

* in Hungarian Populated places in Bács-Kiskun County Towns in Hungary {{Bacs-geo-stub