The city of Mezőkövesd in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county is the seat of the Mezőkövesd district. It is the fourth most populated settlement in the county after the county seat.
Matyó embroidery
Matyó Museum
House of Folk Arts, Dance Barn,
Matyóföld Folklore Festival
City Gallery (paintings by István Takács)
Kis Jankó Bori Memorial House
Saint László Church (frescoes by István
Takács)
Zsóry Medical and Beach Spa
Hadas district (Matyó country
houses, typical 19th-century country streets)
Agricultural Machinery
Museum
Hoór-völgye reservoir
His sports life
The city's
football club is Mezőkövesdi SE, currently listed in the NBI. It also
has an NB2 handball team, Mezőkövesdi KC 2022.
It is located at the southern edge of the Bükk region, at the
junction of the Great Plains and the North Central Mountains, in the
Borsodi-Mezoség region, 20 kilometers from Eger and 50 kilometers from
the county seat Miskolc.
The directly bordering settlements are:
Bogács and Tard from the north, Mezőnyárád from the northeast,
Mezőkeresztes from the east, Szentistván from the southeast, Egerlövő
and Egerfarmos from the south, Mezőszemere from the southwest, Szihalom
from the west, and Novaj and Szomolya from the northwest.
Approach
Its most important road access routes are highway 3 and the
M3 motorway, which are the easiest to reach from the more distant parts
of the country. The road passes a few kilometers south of the interior,
in a west-east direction, and highway 3 passed through its center for a
long time, avoiding it from the north for some time.
Among the
surrounding smaller settlements, highway 253 with Andornaktálya (route
2502 according to previous numbering), Noszvaj with highway 2509,
through Bogács with Bükkszentkereszt via highway 2511, Tarddal and
Cserépváralja with highway 25 113, Egerlövöv and Ároktöv, and it is
connected with smaller villages in between by road 3302 and with
Szentistván by road 3303.
The area was already inhabited in the age of migration, and
archaeologists assume a large, populous Avar settlement here from the
numerous Avar graves discovered in the area. The first Hungarian
settlement was established at the time of the conquest, but the church
census of 1275 refers to it as an uninhabited village, presumably
destroyed during the Tatar invasion. From the 14th century, it was the
southernmost settlement of the Diósgyőr manor. It was already mentioned
as a market town in the 15th century.
Here, on March 28, 1450,
János Hunyadi and bishop László Hédervári concluded the Mezőkövesd peace
with the Hussites, according to which Giskra could keep the mining
towns. In 1464, he received a seal from King Matthias, and later other
privileges. According to the legend, the name of the people of the city
and the surrounding villages, the Matyó ethnic group, also comes from
the name Mátyás (the name originated in the 18th century; it was a
distinguishing name used by the Protestant population of the northern
areas, referring to the Catholic population of the area).
From
1544, the city was under Turkish rule, it was destroyed in 1552 - the
year of the siege of the Eger Castle - it remained uninhabited for years
after the 1596 Battle of Mezőkerestes, and did not regain its former
population until the end of the Turkish era.
In 1784, Mezőkövesd
redeemed itself from its feudal lord, the Hungarian crown. On February
28, 1849, the Home Army, which had been defeated in the Battle of
Kapalna, fought a victorious battle with the imperialists under the
leadership of György Kmety, Lajos Aulich and Richard Guyon at the border
of the settlement.
The settlement flourished, the development of
the railway line (1860s) had a good effect on it. In terms of
population, the year 1941 holds the record, according to the census it
had almost 21,000 inhabitants.
In 1939, the 72-degree, sulphurous
spring of medicinal water emerged from a depth of 800 meters during an
oil prospecting drilling operation on the family estate of parliament
member Lajos Zsóry. The water promotes the treatment of rheumatic
diseases, various wear and arthritis, injuries and orthopedic
interventions, but it is also suitable for alleviating gynecological
complaints. The Zsóry Spa and Beach Bath, or Zsóry Bath in short, was
built here.
Today's Mezőkövesdje preserves its folk traditions as
the "capital of Matyóföld", but at the same time, with its schools,
sports facilities and other institutions, it also meets the requirements
of 21st century cities.
Mayors
1990–1991: Dr. Márton Somogyi (unknown)
1991–1994: János
Pap (unknown)
1994–1998: György Herkely (Electoral Association
Mezőkövesd)
1998–2002: Gyula Halmai (MSZP)
2002–2006: András
Tállai (Fidesz-MDF-MKDSZ)
2006–2010: András Tállai
(Fidesz-KDNP-National Forum)
2010–2014: Dr. Zoltán Fekete
(Fidesz-KDNP)
2014–2019: Dr. Zoltán Fekete (Fidesz–KDNP)
From
2019: Dr. Zoltán Fekete (Fidesz–KDNP)
The settlement had to hold
an interim mayor election at the end of May 1991, because the mayor, who
was elected in the fall of the previous year, resigned from his post
after a few months for reasons still unclear.
Changes in the population of the settlement:
In 2001, 70% of the
settlement's population declared themselves to be of Hungarian
nationality; there is also a Roma community in the settlement.
During the 2011 census, 85.8% of the residents identified themselves as
Hungarian, 4% as Gypsy, and 0.5% as German (14.1% did not declare; due
to dual identities, the total may be greater than 100%). The religious
distribution was as follows: Roman Catholic 55.8%, Reformed 5.2%, Greek
Catholic 0.4%, non-denominational 7.9% (29% did not declare).
Mezőkövesdi Television broadcasts every day of the week. Every week, it broadcasts one news program, one magazine program, two sports programs, one cultural program, as well as broadcasts of the meetings of the representative bodies, their repetitions, and a continuous picture newspaper between the edited programs via cable network.
Vilmos Balogh is an Olympian boxer
Actor József Bíró
János
Bollók (1944–2001), antiquarian, doctor of linguistics, literary
translator, university professor
Csézy (Erzsébet Csézi, 1979) is a
singer
Berta Egri (born Unterberg; 1880–1950) actress
Mária Érdi
is a sailing Olympian
Funktastic (Adorján Csató) rap musician
Sándor Garamszeghy (Béla Sándor Géczy, born Goits; 1879-1964) actor,
writer
Kálmán Harsányi (1876–1929) was a writer
József Ittes
(1954–) is an actor
Éva Jablonkay (1939-2010) Ferenc Liszt Prize
winner (1977) Hungarian opera singer (alto)
József Jacsó (1962)
Hungarian weightlifter, Olympic silver medalist. The Hungarian
weightlifter who moved the largest mass (427.5 kilos, Seoul)
Iván
Kápolnai (1925-2014) Hungarian statistician, economist, cultural and
economic historian, librarian
Keleti Part band - Eletképek MK 1992
Bori Kis Jankó (1876–1954) embroiderer
János Kovács Jászai Mari
Award-winning Hungarian actor
Sándor Lukács (1914-1984) high school
teacher, school principal, member of parliament
Menachem Zevi Kaddari
(1925–2011) Hebraist and linguist
Dr. József Morvay (1926-1987)
Hungarian pharmacist, chemist, university professor
Dr. Zoltán Papp
(1942 – ) professor of medicine, obstetrician-gynecologist, geneticist,
health manager, forensic medicine expert, prominent figure in domestic
obstetrics and gynecology, editor-in-chief of Orvosi Hetilap
Antal
Pongrácz[15] (1827-1880) first lieutenant, first lieutenant of the
National Guard, clerk of Cserépfalu, clerk of the district court.
Mihály Pongrácz (1800-1879) was a Premontre canon and teacher
Film
director Csaba Szekeres
István Takács (1901–1985) painter
Zubai
Szabolcs (1984) Olympic 4th place Hungarian national team and Pick
Szeged EHF Cup winning linebacker