Lőrinci is a town in

Heves County Heves county (, ) 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 (county), Pest, Nógrád (county), Nógrád, Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén and ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much 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 south, Croatia and ...

, beside of the

Zagyva The Zagyva is a river in Hungary. This 179 km long river drains a basin of 5,677 km2. The source is near Salgótarján in Nógrád county. It flows through the towns of Bátonyterenye, Pásztó, Hatvan and Jászberény and flows into t ...

river. As of 2022 census, it has a population of 5352 (see Demographics). The town is located beside the (Nr. 81)

Hatvan–Fiľakovo railway Hatvan– Fiľakovo railway is a non-electrified railway connecting Hatvan, Hungary with Fiľakovo, Slovakia. Once a major connecting railway, the line currently sees only local Regionalbahn service and local goods traffic. It is double tracke ...

line and the main road 21. The

M3 motorway M3 motorway may refer to: * M3 motorway or Riverside Expressway, part of the Pacific Motorway in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia * M3 motorway (Great Britain), a motorway in England * M3 motorway (Hungary), a motorway in Hungary * M3 motorway in ...

is 7.4 km away. The town has a railway stop and a station: ''Selyp'' in the north, ''Lőrinci'' in the middle. The ''Mátravidéki Erőmű'' station in the south does not have public transport.

History

Artifacts from the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

were found in the settlement. Its church is first mentioned in a charter in 1267 in the form of ''Ecclesia de Laurencio''. The name of the settlement derives from the personal name

Lőrinc Lőrinc () is a Hungarian given name. It is a cognate of English '' Laurence'', a name derived from a form of the Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. L ...

(Laurence). The northern part of today's town was an independent village called ''Selyp'', which belonged to the Rátót, then the clan, while Lőrinci belonged to the bishop of Oradea. It was occupied by the

Ottomans Ottoman may refer to: * Osman I, historically known in English as "Ottoman I", founder of the Ottoman Empire * Osman II, historically known in English as "Ottoman II" * Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empir ...

in 1544 and Selyp was depopulated. In the 17th century, it became the property of the , and its church was built in 1695. Count Antal Grassalkovich became the landlord in 1730. The population was engaged in transporting

salt In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as r ...

, a and a salt distributor operated in the settlement. In the 19th century, the population exceeded 1000, and ''Selyp'' was then annexed to Lőrinci. A

cholera epidemic Seven cholera pandemics have occurred in the past 200 years, with the first pandemic originating in India in 1817. The seventh cholera pandemic is officially a current pandemic and has been ongoing since 1961, according to a World Health Organi ...

devastated the settlement in 1873. Baron Rezső Schossberger began the industrialization of Lőrinci: a , a mill and a

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mi ...

factory were built. The family also built a castle in 1924. The was built in 1940, and then the

lignite Lignite (derived from Latin ''lignum'' meaning 'wood'), 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 ...

mine was opened. After 1945, a brick factory, a

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcela ...

and

tile Tiles are usually thin, square or rectangular coverings manufactured from hard-wearing material such as ceramic, Rock (geology), stone, metal, baked clay, or even glass. They are generally fixed in place in an array to cover roofs, floors, wal ...

factory and a cheese factory were established. A

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...

lake was created next to the power plant. The

mining settlement 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. Historical mining communities Australia * Ballarat, Victoria * Bendigo ...

next to the lignite mine (

Petőfibánya Petőfibánya is a village in Heves County, Hungary, beside the Zagyva river, under the Mátra mountain range. As of the 2022 census, it has a population of 2457 (see Demographics). The village is located 2.7 km from (Nr. 81) Hatvan–Fiľakovo ra ...

) became an independent village in 1989. The settlement received town status in 1992. The sugar factory closed in 1998. The Schossberger castle, which was damaged in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, was renovated in 2004 and the town library moved into it. The painter

György Kepes György Kepes (; October 4, 1906 – December 29, 2001) was a Hungarian-born painter, photographer, designer, educator, and art theorist. After immigrating to the U.S. in 1937, he taught design at the New Bauhaus (later the School of Design, t ...

(1906–2001) birth here.

Demographics

According the 2022 census, 86.6% of the population were of Hungarian ethnicity, 1.5% were

Gypsies {{Infobox ethnic group , group = Romani people , image = , image_caption = , flag = Roma flag.svg , flag_caption = Romani flag created in 1933 and accepted at the 1971 World Romani Congress , ...

and 13.0% were did not wish to answer. The religious distribution was as follows: 32.0%

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

, 2.7%

Calvinist Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Protestantism, Continenta ...

, 0.6%

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

, 0.5%

Greek Catholic Greek Catholic Church or Byzantine-Catholic Church may refer to: * The Catholic Church in Greece * The Eastern Catholic Churches The Eastern Catholic Churches or Oriental Catholic Churches, also known as the Eastern-Rite Catholic Churches, Ea ...

16.7% non-denominational, and 44.7% did not wish to answer. The

have a local nationality government. 5294 people live in the town and 6 in an industrial establishment. Population by years:

Politics

''Mayors since 1990'': * 1990–2002: Antal Varga (independent) * 2002–2024: Zoltán Víg (until 2014: LVJBE, between 2006-2010 supported by the

MSZP The Hungarian Socialist Party (, ), commonly known by its acronym MSZP (), is a Centre-left politics, centre-left to Left-wing politics, left-wing social democracy, social-democratic and Pro-Europeanism, pro-European list of political parties in ...

too, but from 2014 independent) *2024–: Péter Pálinkás (

Fidesz–KDNP Fidesz–KDNP Party Alliance (), formerly also known as the Alliance of Hungarian Solidarity (), is a right-wing national conservative political alliance of two political parties in Hungary, the Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Alliance (Fidesz) and ...

)

References

Populated places in Heves County Socialist planned cities Planned communities in Hungary {{Heves-geo-stub