Gyula (Romanian: Jula, German: Jula) is a town in Békés county, the center of the Gyula district. It is the second most populated settlement in the county after the county seat. It lies east of the Gyulavári Gyula, beyond the Fehér-Körös.
Location
It is located in the southeastern part of the Great
Plain, on the Körös plateau, on the left bank of the Fehér-Körös,
right next to the Romanian border. It is located in one of the
deepest areas of Hungary, at an altitude of 88 meters above sea
level, in flat countryside. The climate of the region is temperate,
continental.
The nearest neighboring town is Békéscsaba,
which is 16 kilometers west of it. Other neighbors: Doboz and Sarkad
from the north, Kötegyán from the northeast, settlements on the
border of Bihor county and Arad county in Romania (Ant,
Feketegyarmat, Nagyzerind) from the east, Gyulavarsánd and Nagypél,
also belonging to Arad county, from the southeast and Kétegyháza and
Szabadkígyós.
The Fehér- and Fekete-Körös are among the
cleanest rivers in Hungary; the riverbanks and forests here, which
have now been classified as protected areas, are particularly
beautiful in terms of landscape. The city itself has a significant
tourist role with its many parks, monuments and charming streets,
and not least with its character as a spa town.
Getting in
The most important road in the city is the main road 44: it
currently bypasses the city center from the south, but it is the
main access route from the county seat Békéscsaba and the western
parts of the country, as well as from the Romanian border.
Among the surrounding larger settlements, Szeghalom, Vésztő and
Doboz, settlements 4234, Furta-Komádi-Sarkad, 4519, Mezőhegyes,
Battonya and Elek, 4444, Makó, (another direction), Mezőhegyes and
Mezőkovácsháza, 4434. is connected to Csorvás and Szabadkígyós by
road 4431. The south-western part of its administrative area is also
affected by the road 4433 between Békéscsaba and Kétegyháza.
The origin of his name
In the last decades of the 13th century,
the transformation of the organization of the royal counties in the
Mureş - Körös region was completed. In the course of this process,
the estates belonging to the royal counties and manors were largely
transferred to the hands of the castle lords, who thus became
landowners. Historians believe that a mysterious person named Gyula,
who was strengthened in his power and from whom the settlement was
named, may also have been from the middle class of the nobility.