Szarvas (; sk, Sarvaš; german: Sarwasch) is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

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

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 ...

Name

Placename Szarvas originated from the old Hungarian word ''szarvas'', which means

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the re ...

. Deer also can be found in the coat of arms of the town.

Location

Szarvas is located in the

Great Hungarian Plain The Great Hungarian Plain (also known as Alföld or Great Alföld, hu, Alföld or ) is a plain occupying the majority of the modern territory of Hungary. It is the largest part of the wider Pannonian Plain. (However, the Great Hungarian plain ...

upon the

Körös River The Körös () or Criș () ( German: ''Kreisch'') is a river in eastern Hungary and western Romania. Its length is from the confluence of its two source rivers Fehér-Körös ('' Crișul Alb'') and Fekete-Körös ('' Crișul Negru'') to its out ...

, southeast from

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

. Highways 44 and 443, and the

Mezőtúr Mezőtúr is a town in Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county in Hungary, located southeast from Budapest and 88 miles away by rail. It possesses important potteries. Large herds of cattle are reared on the communal lands, which are productive also of whea ...

Orosháza Orosháza is a city situated in the westernmost part of Békés county, Hungary, on the Békés ridge bordered by the rivers Maros and Körös. Orosháza is an important cultural, educational and recreational centre of the region. Main sigh ...

Mezőhegyes Mezőhegyes is a town in Békés county, in the Southern Great Plain region of south-east Hungary. It is home to the Hungarian State Stud ( hu, italic=no, Mezőhegyesi Állami Ménes), founded in 1784 and famous for its Nonius, Furioso-North Sta ...

railway line also cross the town. The geographic centre of Hungary was near Szarvas before the

Treaty of Trianon The Treaty of Trianon (french: Traité de Trianon, hu, Trianoni békeszerződés, it, Trattato del Trianon) was prepared at the Paris Peace Conference and was signed in the Grand Trianon château in Versailles on 4 June 1920. It forma ...

; a memorial in a windmill shape now marks that location in a park on a bank of the Körös River across from the Arboretum.

History

According to the Hungarian Royal Treasury ( hu, Magyar Királyi Kincstár) it was an ethnic Hungarian town in 1495.Károly Kocsis (DSc, University of Miskolc) – Zsolt Bottlik (PhD, Budapest University) – Patrik Tátrai: Etnikai térfolyamatok a Kárpát-medence határon túli régióiban, Magyar Tudományos Akadémia (Hungarian Academy of Sciences) – Földrajtudományi Kutatóintézet (Academy of Geographical Studies); Budapest; 2006.; , CD Atlas The

Medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

town was ruined due to the

Ottoman wars A series of military conflicts between the Ottoman Empire and various European states took place from the Late Middle Ages up through the early 20th century. The earliest conflicts began during the Byzantine–Ottoman wars, waged in Anatolia in ...

, native Hungarian population fled from the area. It was uninhabited until 1720, when Austrian baron Johann Georg Freiherr von Harruckern (György János Harruckern) invited mainly Slovak settlers from

Upper Hungary Upper Hungary is the usual English translation of ''Felvidék'' (literally: "Upland"), the Hungarian term for the area that was historically the northern part of the Kingdom of Hungary, now mostly present-day Slovakia. The region has also been ...

to the deserted area. They built a brand new town by the help of Sámuel Tessedik, who invited engineers to plan the town. Tessedik also established the first agricultural school in Hungary.

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

church was built from 1786 to 1788, 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 lette ...

from 1808 to 1812. Town hall was built in 1820.Antal Papp: Magyarország (Hungary), Panoráma, Budapest, 1982, , p. 860, pp. 448-449 Hungarians overtook Slovaks in the 1920s, become the majority according to the census was held in 1930. Since 1990 Szarvas is home to the Ronald S. Lauder Szarvas International Jewish Youth Camp ( hu, Szarvasi Nemzetközi Zsidó Ifjúsági Tábor).

Demographics

According to the 2011 census the total population of Szarvas was 16,954, of whom there were 14,325 (84.5%)

Hungarians Hungarians, also known as Magyars ( ; hu, magyarok ), are a nation and ethnic group native to Hungary () and historical Hungarian lands who share a common culture, history, ancestry, and language. The Hungarian language belongs to the Urali ...

, 1,822 (10.8%)

Slovaks The Slovaks ( sk, Slováci, singular: ''Slovák'', feminine: ''Slovenka'', plural: ''Slovenky'') are a West Slavic ethnic group and nation native to Slovakia who share a common ancestry, culture, history and speak Slovak. In Slovakia, 4.4 mi ...

, 489 (2.9%)

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnicities * Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia ** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule * Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...

and 75 (0.4%)

Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

by ethnicity. 15.4% did not declare their ethnicity, excluding these people Hungarians made up 99.9% of the total population. In Hungary people can declare more than one ethnicity, so some people declared a minority one along with Hungarian.2011 Hungarian census, Békés county
/ref> In 2011 there were 4,531 (26.7%)

, 2,601 (15.3%)

and 708 (4.2%)

Hungarian Reformed The Reformed Church in Hungary ( hu, Magyarországi Református Egyház, MRE) is the largest Protestant church in Hungary, with parishes among the Hungarian diaspora abroad. Today, it is made up of 1,249 congregations in 27 presbyteries and four ...

(

Calvinist Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...

) in Szarvas. 4,087 people (24.1%) were irreligious and 200 (1.2%) Atheist, while 4,601 people (27.1%) did not declare their religion.

Sights

* Szarvas Botanical Garden (Szarvasi Arborétum) * Bolza Castle (Bolza-kastély) * Dry Mill (Szárazmalom) * Sámuel Tessedik Muzeum (Tessedik Sámuel Múzeum) * Szarvas Spa (Szarvasi Gyógyfürdő) * Csáky Castle (Csáky-kastély) * Mitrovszky Castle (Mitrovszky-kastély) * György Ruzicskay Art House (Ruzicskay György Alkotóház) * Lutheran Old Church (Evangélikus ótemplom) * New Lutheran Church (Evangélikus újtemplom) * Slovak Country House (Szlovák tájház)

Notable people

* Roland Lipcsei (1984), Hungarian football player *

Éva Novodomszky Éva Novodomszky (born 19 January 1974 in Szarvas, Hungary) is a Hungarian journalist and presenter. She started her career in a journalist school (Komlósi Oktatási Stúdió). She became a reporter (then presenter) of news of youth in Magyar ...

(1974), Hungarian journalist and presenter *

Endre Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Endre Kálmán Bajcsy-Zsilinszky ( Szarvas, June 6, 1886 – Sopronkőhida, December 24, 1944), was an influential Hungarian national radical politician and an important voice in the struggle against German expansion and military policy. Exec ...

(1886-1944), Hungarian politician

Sport

* Szarvasi FC, association football club

Twin towns – sister cities

Szarvas is twinned with: *

Baraolt Baraolt (; hu, Barót, ) is a town and administrative district in Covasna County, Romania. It lies in the Székely Land, an ethno-cultural region in eastern Transylvania. The town was mentioned for the first time as a settlement in 1224. It adm ...

, Romania *

Bucine Bucine is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Arezzo in the Italian region Tuscany, located about southeast of Florence and about west of Arezzo. Subdivision Bucine borders the following municipalities: Castelnuovo Berardenga, Civit ...

, Italy *

Keuruu Keuruu (; sv, Keuru) is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Central Finland region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The popul ...

, Finland *

Malacky Malacky ( German: ''Malatzka'', Hungarian: ''Malacka'') is a town and municipality in western Slovakia around north from capital Bratislava. From the second half of the 10th century until 1918, it was part of the Kingdom of Hungary. It is one ...

, Slovakia *

Poprad Poprad (; hu, Poprád; german: Deutschendorf) is a city in northern Slovakia at the foot of the High Tatra Mountains, famous for its picturesque historic centre and as a holiday resort. It is the biggest town of the Spiš region and the t ...

, Slovakia *

Șimleu Silvaniei Șimleu Silvaniei (; hu, Szilágysomlyó, german: Schomlenmarkt) is a town in Sălaj County, Crișana, Romania with a population of 14,436 people (2011 census). It is located near the ancient Dacian fortress Dacidava. Three villages are adminis ...

, Romania * Vlăhița, Romania

References

External links

* in Hungarian and English
Aerial photographs of Szarvas
{{Authority control Populated places in Békés County Slovak communities in Hungary