Mátraszele is a village in

Nógrád County Nógrád ( hu, Nógrád megye, ; sk, Novohradská župa) is a counties of Hungary, county ( hu, megye) of Hungary. It sits on the northern edge of Hungary and borders Slovakia. Description Nógrád county lies in northern Hungary. It shares bor ...

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

, the

Zagyva The Zagyva is a river in Hungary. Its length is 179 km, and drains an area of about 5,677 km2. The source is near Salgótarján in Nógrád county. It flows through the towns of Bátonyterenye, Pásztó, Hatvan and Jászberény and flows ...

river flows through the settlement. As of 2022 census, it has a population of 904 (see Demographics). The village located 8.5 km from (Nr. 81) Hatvan–Fiľakovo railway line, 12.0 km far from

Salgótarján Salgótarján (; sk, Šalgotarján) is city with county rights in Hungary, the capital of Nógrád county, north-eastern Hungary, making it the third smallest county capital based on population. The nearby Salgó castle is a well-known tourist ...

, 10.4 km from the main road 21 and 52.8 km from the M3 motorway. The closest train station with public transport in

Bátonyterenye Bátonyterenye is a town in Nógrád county, in Northern Hungary. The town is the part of the Novohrad-Nógrád Geopark. Bátonyterenye was created in 1984 by the unification of the three villages of '' Nagybátony'', '' Kisterenye'', and '' Sz� ...

10.4 km far.

History

The name of Mátraszele was mentioned for the first time between 1304-1321 in a deed as the property of the Rátót clan under the names ''Fel-Szele'' and ''Al-Szele''. It became the property of the in 1449. Pál Jánossy and Lestár Feleki owned it on 1548. The fate of the settlement in the 17th century is unknown. In Mátraszele were 10 families in 1715, and 9 families in 1720. At the beginning of the 19th century, it was owned by Count Pál Lázár and the Oláh family. At the end of the 19th century, several

coal mines 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 ...

were opened, which were owned by the North Hungarian United Coal Company. Several

mining communities A mining community, also known as a mining town or a mining camp, is a community that houses miners. Mining communities are usually created around a mine or a quarry. Historic mining communities Australia * Ballarat, Victoria * Bendig ...

were formed in connection with the mines, of which only ''Istvánbánya'' is inhabited nowadays. The church named as Patrona Hungariae.

Demographics

According the 2022 census, 90.2% of the population were of Hungarian ethnicity, 2.2% were

Gypsies The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sign ...

, 0.6% were

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 ...

and 9.5% were did not wish to answer. The religious distribution was as follows: 40.6%

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 lette ...

, 16.1% non-denominational, and 39.0% did not wish to answer. 900 people live in the village and 2 person live in a mine site. Population by years:

Politics

''Mayors since 1990'': * 1990–: László Vincze (independent) Mátraszele is one of the few settlements in Hungary, where only one mayor existed since 1990.

References

Populated places in Nógrád County {{Nograd-geo-stub