Balmazújváros is the city of Hajdú-Bihar county, the seat of the Balmazújváros district. It is the fourth most populated settlement in the county after the county seat.
Balmazújváros is a special, market-town settlement of
the Great Plain in Hajdú-Bihar county. The large city is located on
the border of two typical Great Plain landscapes, Hortobágy and
Hajdúság. It is located 23 km from Debrecen, 16 km from
Hajdúböszörmény and 21 km from Hajdúszoboszló.
The
administrative area of the city is crossed by two natural living
waters, the Hortobágy River and the Kadarcs-Karácsonyfok canal,
which receives the water of the main catchment area. The Eastern
Main Canal, built in 1953, is 3 km from the city.
In an east-west direction, Route 3316 runs through the
administrative area of the city, including its center; this road
provides a connection for the settlement to the west towards
Tiszacsege and to the east also towards Debrecen. In the city
center, two more four-digit roads branch from the former road, in
the south-southwest direction, towards Nagyhegyes-Hajdúszoboszló in
the direction of 3321, in the north-east direction, and towards
Hajdúnánás in the direction of 3323. From the latter, the road 3318
branches off on the outskirts of the city, leading to
Hajdúböszörmény
The settlement can also be reached by train
on the Debrecen – Füzesabony railway line; Balmazújváros railway
station is located near the center, a little northeast of it; access
to the road is made possible by side road 33 321 branching east from
road 3323.
The area of today's Balmazújváros has
been inhabited since ancient times. In the time of the kings of the
Árpád dynasty, several smaller settlements developed on its borders,
their names are still preserved by a part of the border or a
vineyard (Bakóc, Cucca, Balmaz, Hímes, Darassa, Hort, etc.). The
settlement that developed after the conquest was completely
destroyed during the Tartar invasion. The Hímes estate, which is to
be found in the interior of today's settlement, was first mentioned
in the papal tithe register in 1332. The name of Balmaz - as a
wilderness - can be found in written sources only at the beginning
of the 15th century, when King Sigismund (in 1411) donated the
accessory of Debrecen to István Lázárevics, a Serbian voivode. The
name of the settlement from 1465 is certainly New Town. King
Matthias' charter dated 1465 allowed Újváros to hold 3 national
fairs and a one-week fair. In addition to the right to hold fairs,
the diploma also endowed the settlement with market town rights.
During the Hunyadians, New Town developed into a thriving market
town. Due to the stabilized war conditions, the settlement was
uninhabited between 1591 and 1610, and then only by the 1720s did it
reach its former population again. In 1753, Maria Theresa donated
the entire New Town border to the Andrássy family. They developed
the farming of the majors. In 1773, the New Town with city rights
was again sunk into a robot-binding village.
Their other
notable action was the settlement of the German population in New
Town in 1766. The village became the property of the Semsey family
in 1798. The Semseyes settled semi-Slovak Catholics from the Košice
area in the village as manorial servants. In the second half of the
19th century, capitalization began here as well. The stratification
of an already differentiated population has accelerated. In Újváros,
the number of celery was always above the national average. For this
reason, it became one of the strongest bases and venues of agrarian
socialist organizations and movements in Hungary.
In 1877 the
administrative division of the settlement changed, from Újváros
Szabolcs county to Hajdú county and became the district seat. In
World War I, 600 people from New Town died. The proletarian
dictatorship did not bring about the desired changes. The occupying
Romanian troops arrived here on April 23, 1919, and withdrew only a
year later. On October 22, 1944, the II. world War.
After
that, the most significant event was the land reform in the landless
city of Újváros. In the village, the first in the country, the
commencement of the division of land was announced on March 20,
1945. After the forced collectivization of the 1950s, 10 producer
cooperatives were formed, while eventually two producer cooperatives
remained in the village. Lenin and the Red Star Producer
Cooperatives operated well until the late 1980s and were the largest
employers in the town.
On March 15, 1989, Balmazújváros was
again given the title of city.