Szurdokpüspöki 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 ...

, beside of the Zagyva river, under the Mátra 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 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 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 prehistory, prehistoric period during which Rock (geology), stone was widely used to make stone tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years and ended b ...

and

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 ...

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

Gyöngyös Gyöngyös is a town in Heves County, Hungary, beside of the Gyöngyös creek, under the Mátra mountain ranges. As of 2022 census, it has a population of 27,957 (see Demographics). The town is located 8.4 km from the M3 motorway and 80.8 km ...

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

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

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, accesse ...

and the

baptismal font A baptismal font is an Church architecture, ecclesiastical architectural element, which serves as a receptacle for baptismal water used for baptism, as a part of Christian initiation for both rites of Infant baptism, infant and Believer's bapti ...

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 mining, open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock (geology), rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some juri ...

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

diatomaceous earth Diatomaceous earth ( ), also known as diatomite ( ), celite, or kieselguhr, is a naturally occurring, soft, siliceous rock, siliceous sedimentary rock that can be crumbled into a fine white to off-white powder. It has a particle size ranging fr ...

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 (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curv ...

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 r ...

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 (, , and ) was one of the high officials of the royal household in the Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from 1000 ...

. 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 (forgiven) sins". The ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' describes an indulgence as "a remission bef ...

permit from

Pope Boniface IX Pope Boniface 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 during the Western Schism.Richard P. McBrien, ''Lives of t ...

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 Mátra.

Demographics

According the 2022 census, 89.0% of the population were of Hungarian ethnicity, 0.7% 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 10.9% were did not wish to answer. The religious distribution was as follows: 46.2%

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 ...

, 2.2%

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 ...

, 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