Petőfibánya (formerly ''Pernyepuszta, Pernyebánya)'' is a village in

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 ...

Heves county Heves county ( hu, Heves megye, ) lies in northern Hungary, between the right bank of the river Tisza and the Mátra and Bükk mountains. It shares borders with the Hungarian counties Pest, Nógrád, Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén and Jász-Nagykun-S ...

, near

Hatvan Hatvan is a town in Heves county, Hungary. Hatvan is the Hungarian word for "sixty". Etymology Hatvan is the Hungarian word for "sixty". It is a common urban legend that the town got this name because it is 60 km from Budapest, but in fact the na ...

. It has a population of 2573 (2021).

Geography

Petőfibánya is situated 15 km from

, in the Mátraalja microregion, among the foothills of 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 range. The town was built by the

Lőrinci Lőrinci is a town in Heves County, Hungary, situated on the Zagyva River just north of Hatvan, in the northwest corner of the Great Hungarian Plain. The northern district of the town is called Selyp. György Kepes György Kepes �ɟøɾɟ � ...

Rózsaszentmárton Rózsaszentmárton is a village in Heves County, 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, Romani ...

highway, not far from the River

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 ...

History

Petőfibánya is a small

planned city A planned community, planned city, planned town, or planned settlement is any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed on previously undeveloped land. This contrasts with settlements that evolve ...

established between 1945 and 1965. Originally there was a small settlement on the site called Pernyepuszta. A coal mine was established in 1942 and exploitation of the local

lignite Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible, sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35%, and is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its relatively low heat ...

reserves began in October 1945. The settlement was renamed to Pernyebánya that year, and Petőfibánya in 1948 (''bánya'' means "mine" in Hungarian). The mine was operated by the Petőfi Mining Company that built a power plant in nearby

. Petőfibánya was part of

until 1989 when it became an independent municipality. The mining company also established a mining machine plant in Petőfibánya. Other industrial activities appeared later. The town was given its present name after the state owned company which bore the name of

Sándor Petőfi Sándor Petőfi ( []; né Petrovics; sk, Alexander Petrovič; sr, Александар Петровић; 1 January 1823 – most likely 31 July 1849) was a Hungarian poet of Serbian origin and liberal revolutionary. He is considered Hungary's ...

, the national poet of Hungarians. In the 1950s and 1960s block houses and public buildings were erected in the typical

Socialist realist Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is ch ...

style of the era. Petőfibánya never became an important industrial city because lignite mining halted in the middle of the 1960s. The development of the town came to an abrupt end. The economic consequences of the 1989 change hit Petőfibánya hard. In the 1990s unemployment was more than 30 percent and many people left the town. Today Petőfibánya is a quiet backwater and a strange "

open-air museum An open-air museum (or open air museum) is a museum that exhibits collections of buildings and artifacts out-of-doors. It is also frequently known as a museum of buildings or a folk museum. Definition Open air is “the unconfined atmosphere� ...

" of the 1950s

urban planning Urban planning, also known as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning, is a technical and political process that is focused on the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water, ...

policies.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Petofibanya Populated places in Heves County Socialist planned cities Planned cities in Hungary