Szarvas
| Szarvas | |||||
|
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| Basic data | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| State : | Hungary | ||||
| Region : | Southern Great Plain | ||||
| County : | Békés | ||||
| Small area until December 31, 2012 : | Szarvas | ||||
| Coordinates : | 46 ° 52 ′ N , 20 ° 33 ′ E | ||||
| Area : | 161.75 km² | ||||
| Residents : | 17,181 (Jan. 1, 2011) | ||||
| Population density : | 106 inhabitants per km² | ||||
| Telephone code : | (+36) 66 | ||||
| Postal code : | 5540 | ||||
| KSH kódja: | 23870 | ||||
| Structure and administration (as of 2012) | |||||
| Community type : | city | ||||
| Mayor : | Mihály Babák | ||||
| Postal address : | Szabadság u. 25-27 5540 Szarvas |
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| Website : | |||||
| (Source: A Magyar Köztársaság helységnévkönyve 2011. január 1st at Központi statisztikai hivatal ) | |||||
Szarvas [ ˈsɒrvɒʃ ] ( Slovak Sarvaš ; German Hirschfeld ) is a town with 17,731 inhabitants (2008) in Hungary in Békés County .
The city is located in the Hungarian lowlands on an oxbow lake of the river Körös and on the national road 44 from Kecskemét via the county capital Békéscsaba to Gyula on the Romanian border.
population
In 2001, 89% of the city's population were Hungarian, 8% Slovak , 2% Roma and 1% of other ethnicities (mainly Germans, Romanians and Slovenes).
history
The old settlement on the hill of the same name ( Hungarian szarvas = deer) died out during the Turkish rule. In 1722 the city was re-established by the settlement of Evangelical Slovaks. Szarvas still has a Slovak-speaking part of the population with its own elementary school.
Sámuel Tessedik (1742–1820), a pastor and scientist, planned the strictly chessboard-like settlement with wide streets, which still distinguishes the city from other Hungarian towns, and founded one of the first agricultural schools in Europe.
In the 19th century the Bolza family created an arboretum (85 hectares), one of the city's main attractions.
Szarvas has its current importance as the center of the agricultural environment and as the location of two research centers (for fish farming and for irrigation), an agricultural college, a pedagogical college and other schools. Tourism is also becoming increasingly important (including water sports on the Körös Altarm, horse riding). Szarvas is the center of the Körös-Maros National Park .
The International Jewish Youth Camp has been held every summer on the eastern edge of the city since 1990 and is sponsored by the Lauder Foundation .
In September 2011, BayWa re Bioenergie GmbH officially put Hungary's largest and most modern biogas plant into operation. The waste recycling plant with an output of around 4 megawatts (MW) was built in a one-year construction period .
Attractions
- Old Evangelical Church ( evangélikus ótemplom ) from 1788
- Roman Catholic Church from 1812
- Arboretum , laid out around 1830, and Mini-Magyarország (park with models of famous buildings from historical Hungary)
- Sámuel Tessedik Museum ( Tessedik Sámuel Múzeum )
- Horse mill from 1836, next to Tarpa one of the few restored horse mills from the 19th century in Hungary
- Theater am Wasser (Víziszínház) from 2011 - open-air stage at the back of the Kreisch
sons and daughters of the town
- Árpád Szendy (1863–1922), composer
- Endre Bajcsy-Zsilinszky (1886–1944), politician
- György Ruzicskay (1896–1993), painter
- Itamar Yaoz-Keszt (* 1934), Israeli poet and translator
