Szurdokpüspöki 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 ...

, beside of 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, under the

Mátra The Mátra ( sk, Matra) is a mountain range in northern Hungary, between the towns Gyöngyös and Eger. The country's highest peak, Kékestető (1014 m), belongs to this mountain range. The Mátra is part of the North Hungarian Mountains an ...

mountain ranges. As of 2022 census, it has a population of 1756 (see Demographics). The village located beside of the (Nr. 81) Hatvan–Fiľakovo railway line and the main road 21 and 21.7 km away from the M3 motorway. The village have an own railway station with public transport.

History

Several

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years, and ended between 4,000 BC and 2,000 BC, with t ...

and

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

finds were also found. The village got its name from the ''Szurdok'', a narrow valley used by the road leading to

Gyöngyös Gyöngyös (; german: Gengeß) is a town in Heves county in Hungary, east of Budapest. Situated at the foot of the Sár-hegy and Mátra mountains, it is the home of numerous food production plants, including milk production and sausage factories ...

. The village is one of the ten settlements that King Stephen I donated in 1004 to the

Bishopric of Eger The Archdiocese of Eger ( la, Archidioecesis Agriensis) is an archdiocese in Northern Hungary, its centre is the city of Eger. History * 1000: Established as Diocese of Eger * August 9, 1804: Promoted as Metropolitan Archdiocese of Eger Ordi ...

he founded. King Béla IV confirmed the right of ownership in a deed in 1261, but from 1288 it fell into the hands of secular landlords: the , Taris, Kompolthys, Báthorys owned it. During the Ottoman era, the population of the village decreased significantly. The church of the

Exaltation of the Holy Cross In the Christianity, Christian liturgical calendar, there are several different Feasts of the Cross, all of which commemorate True Cross, the cross used in the crucifixion of Jesus. Unlike Good Friday, which is dedicated to the Passion (Christian ...

was built in the

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

style in the 1760s, but the

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, access ...

and the

baptismal font A baptismal font is an article of church furniture used for baptism. Aspersion and affusion fonts The fonts of many Christian denominations are for baptisms using a non-immersive method, such as aspersion (sprinkling) or affusion (pouring). ...

made in Copf style. Until the 19th century, the population lived from agriculture. The railway was built in 1867. A

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envi ...

with a stone crusher was established in the Szurdok valley, and a

diatomaceous earth Diatomaceous earth (), diatomite (), or kieselgur/kieselguhr is a naturally occurring, soft, siliceous sedimentary rock that can be crumbled into a fine white to off-white powder. It has a particle size ranging from more than 3 μm to le ...

mine and processing plant further up. A

narrow-gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structur ...

industrial railway An industrial railway is a type of railway (usually private) that is not available for public transportation and is used exclusively to serve a particular industrial, logistics, or military site. In regions of the world influenced by British ra ...

was established to the mines. ''Zagyvaszentjakab'' was merged into the settlement in 1925. It was first mentioned in 1296 under the name ''Szentjakab'', and was owned by Péter Kompolti,

master of the stewards The master of the stewards or master of the table (german: Königliche Obertruchsess, hu, étekfogómester, and la, dapiferorum regalium magistri or magister dapiferorum) was one of the high officials of the royal household in the Kingdom of Hung ...

. The St. James church received a

indulgence In the teaching of the Catholic Church, an indulgence (, from , 'permit') is "a way to reduce the amount of punishment one has to undergo for sins". The '' Catechism of the Catholic Church'' describes an indulgence as "a remission before God o ...

permit from

Pope Boniface IX Pope Boniface IX ( la, Bonifatius IX; it, Bonifacio IX; c. 1350 – 1 October 1404, born Pietro Tomacelli) was head of the Catholic Church from 2 November 1389 to his death in October 1404. He was the second Roman pope of the Western Schism.Richa ...

in 1400. Zagyvaszentjakab is the northern part of today's Szurdokpüspöki. Szurdokpüspöki is the finish place of the ''Mátrabérc'' , which is the oldest performance hike in the

Demographics

According the 2022 census, 89.0% of the population were of Hungarian ethnicity, 0.7% 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 ...

and 10.9% were did not wish to answer. The religious distribution was as follows: 46.2%

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 ...

, 2.2%

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 ...

, 0.6%

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

, 13.7% non-denominational, and 34.3% did not wish to answer. 1752 people live in the village and 7 person live in a resort place and 2 in farm 2.5 and 1.0 km far from the village. Population by years:

Politics

''Mayors since 1990'': * 1990–2010: József Kovács (independent) * 2010–2014: Mrs. László Miklós Géczi (independent) * 2014–: Miklós Ervin Pintér (independent)

Notable people

* (1851–1923) founder of the Hungarian Tourist Association (1891–1946) * (1881–1917) operasinger

References

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