Mezőhegyes is a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

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

, in the

Southern Great Plain The Southern Great Plain ( ) is a statistical ( NUTS 2) region of Hungary. It is part of Great Plain and North (NUTS 1) region. The Southern Great Plain includes the counties of Bács-Kiskun, Békés, and Csongrád-Csanád. The region is in the ...

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

of south-east

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 ...

. It is home to the Hungarian State Stud (), founded in 1784 and famous for its Nonius, Furioso-North Star and Gidran breeds of horse.

Geography

It covers an

area Area is the measure of a region's size on a surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while '' surface area'' refers to the area of an open surface or the boundary of a three-di ...

of 155.5 km² and has a

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

of 6355 people (2007).

History

The Austrian Imperial and Hungarian Royal Apostolic Stud was founded in late 1784 in Mezőhegyes by

Emperor Joseph II Joseph II (13 March 1741 – 20 February 1790) was Holy Roman Emperor from 18 August 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg monarchy from 29 November 1780 until his death. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Emperor F ...

. As a result, the name of Mezőhegyes became interwoven with the concept of horses. It was here that the Nonius, later on the Gidan, the Furioso and the North Star types of horses and the Mezőhegyes English full blood were bred. The Mezőhegyes English full blood was one of the best horse breeds in Europe. Noniusz mezohegyes

The roofed

riding hall A riding hall, indoor arena, indoor school (UK English), or indoor ring (US English) is a building (part of an equestrian facility) that is specially designed for indoor horse riding. Smaller, private buildings contain only space for riding, w ...

designed by János Hild, which is still in use today, is the oldest roofed riding hall in the country. Riding lessons for both experienced riders and beginners are offered to visitors here. The most significant event here is the Mezőhegyes International Mare and Stallion Competition which is organized each June. A member school of Harruckern János Public Educational Institute can be found in Mezőhegyes where marketable and qualitative trades are taught based on the area's agrarian traditions: agricultural mechanic, welder and brick-layer, and for girls: women's dressmaker, social worker and guesthouse and rural host, building on equestrian traditions: how to break in horses, blacksmith and tour leader.

Twin towns – sister cities

Mezőhegyes is twinned with: *

Târgu Secuiesc Târgu Secuiesc (; , ; ; ) is a city in Covasna County, Transylvania, Romania. It administers one village, Lunga (''Nyújtód''). History The town was first mentioned in 1407 as ''Torjawasara'', meaning in Hungarian “Torja Market”. ( Torja ...

, Romania (1990) * Mordano, Italy (1990) * Peregu Mare, Romania (1995) *

San Giorgio di Nogaro San Giorgio di Nogaro (, locally ) is a (municipality) in the Regional decentralization entity of Udine in the Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, located about northwest of Trieste and about south of Udine. As of 31 December 2004, it had ...

, Italy (1998) * Túrkeve, Hungary (2012) * Ozun, Romania (2012)

References

External links

* in Hungarian
State Stud of Mezőhegyes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mezohegyes Populated places in Békés County