Mátraszele is a village in

Nógrád County Nógrád (, ; ) is a counties of Hungary, county () of Hungary. It sits on the northern edge of Hungary and borders Slovakia. Description Nógrád county lies in northern Hungary. It shares borders with Slovakia and the Hungarian counties Pest ( ...

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 ...

, 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 flows through the settlement. As of 2022 census, it has a population of 904 (see Demographics). The village located 8.5 km from (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, 12.0 km far from

Salgótarján Salgótarján (; , German: ''Schalgau'') is a city with county rights in Hungary, the capital of Nógrád County, north-eastern Hungary, making it the third least populous county capital. The nearby Salgó Castle is a well-known tourist attra ...

, 10.4 km from the main road 21 and 52.8 km from 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 ...

. The closest train station with public transport in

Bátonyterenye Bátonyterenye is a town in Nógrád County, Hungary, under the Mátra mountain range, beside of the Zagyva river. As of 2022 census, it has a population of 11,296 (see Demographics). The town located beside of the (Nr. 81) Hatvan–Fiľakovo ra ...

10.4 km far.

History

The name of Mátraszele was mentioned for the first time between 1304-1321 in a deed as the property of the Rátót clan under the names ''Fel-Szele'' and ''Al-Szele''. It became the property of the in 1449. Pál Jánossy and Lestár Feleki owned it on 1548. The fate of the settlement in the 17th century is unknown. In Mátraszele were 10 families in 1715, and 9 families in 1720. At the beginning of the 19th century, it was owned by Count Pál Lázár and the Oláh family. At the end of the 19th century, several

coal mines Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

were opened, which were owned by the North Hungarian United Coal Company. Several

mining communities 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 * Bendig ...

were formed in connection with the mines, of which only ''Istvánbánya'' is inhabited nowadays. The church named as Patrona Hungariae.

Demographics

According the 2022 census, 90.2% of the population were of Hungarian ethnicity, 2.2% 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 , ...

, 0.6% were

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

and 9.5% were did not wish to answer. The religious distribution was as follows: 40.6%

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 ...

, 16.1% non-denominational, and 39.0% did not wish to answer. 900 people live in the village and 2 person live in a mine site. Population by years:

Politics

''Mayors since 1990'': * 1990–2024: László Vincze (independent) *2024–: László Kolozsvári (independent)

References

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