Hatvan

 

Hatvan is the seat of the Hatvan district in the southwestern part of Heves county. It is the third most populated settlement in the county after the county seat. It is realistic to derive his name from the chatwan / chatman of Besenyo-Turkish origin instead of the obvious plant name; "Meaning fragmentary people, subpopulations: the Pechenegs in Hungary were settled in different parts of the country, who maintained their identity and belonging together in their new homeland by the place name Hatvan."

 

Location
Sixty lies on the banks of the Zagyva. Its average altitude is 105 m. The river already flows between water protection facilities, so the thickening of the area is no longer typical. In terms of climate, the Mátra, from which light air comes in, and the valley, which reduces the strength of the wind, have a great influence. Its annual rainfall is lower than the national average.

Parts
It consists of sixty, well-separable parts of the settlement. Óhatvan, the actual center of the city, is located on the eastern shore of the Zagyva. It is connected to the west by the installation of a smaller industrial area in Újhatvan, where the Hatvan railway station and the new bus station are also located. Nagygombos is located north of Óhatvant.

History
The earliest finds from the territory of Sixty date back to the Neolithic. Even then, it can be observed that both sides of the Zagyva were inhabited. However, a really important settlement developed only in the Copper Age, its flowering lasted until the Early Bronze Age.

At the beginning of the Bronze Age (1900–900 BC), steppe shepherd tribes invaded the Carpathian Basin from the east, beyond the Carpathians, where they agreed. One of the two great Hungarian educations of the Bronze Age was named after Hatvan. First József Sperlágh, a pharmacist and amateur archaeologist, found cremation graves on Calvary Hill below Strázsahegy, and then next to the Kishatvani inn on the southeastern edge of the city - their finds were placed in the Hungarian National Museum. In 1934-35, Ferenc Tompa discovered a housing estate on Strázsahegy: an ornate copper plate and a gold object of national significance found there. The colony was inhabited by large families in large houses that included several smaller families. The columned houses were covered with a gable roof; the wicker houses were experienced inside and out.

After the Bronze Age, no significant permanent settlement was re-established in the territory of Hatvan, but the Scythians, Celts, Roxolans, Sarmatians and Avars, and then the conquering Hungarians, also left traces here.

In the 1170s, monks from Premontre settled in what is now the city. The monastery based here slowly became significant in a smaller area (there was already a provost in the 13th century), and the first written mention of the settlement from 1235. A significant achievement of the monks was the drainage of the surrounding swamps and the introduction of modern forms of farming. With the advent of good living conditions in the 13th century, more and more people migrated to Hatvan, the most significant owners of which became the Hatvans.

After 1335, after the Visegrád royal meeting, the importance of the settlement increased greatly, as the Buda – Kraków trade route stretched here, and the Losonc – Fülek – Pásztó road joined it. In the time of Louis I (the Great), the significance of the road only increased as the king's armies marched to Lithuania. Hatvan, who gave the king accommodation several times, finally won the title of market town in 1406. They came to the national fair - where the most significant commodity was the large quantity of Hatvan wine - came from all over.

After Pasha Mohamed Buda's campaign against the fortifications north and east of Buda in 1544, and Visegrád and Nógrád had already fallen, the captains of Hatvan's newly built castle (between 1523 and 1544) believed they did not risk the siege, but set fire to the castle and the soldiers. together they fled to Eger, abandoning the civilian population, which from 1544 was taxed by the Turks. The towns were made by the Turks as the center of the Sandzak region of Gyöngyös, Pásztó and Jászberény, so that more and more Turks became in the city, and by the 17th century the Hungarian indigenous population was already in the minority.

The Turkish city was surrounded by a serious castle system. According to Sebestyén Lantos of Tinódi, the strength was started by the first Turkish city commander, Deli Kurt. The eight-basted palisade may have been roughly on the site of what is now Grassalkovich Castle, and the city was protected by another outer pile wall: according to the tradition of lowland castle architecture, the densely piled wooden piles were filled with clay soil (Because the wood rotted quickly, these types of defenses often had to be repaired.

According to the surviving mercenary lists, in 1560 there were 113 infantry, 295 cavalry, 13 gunners and 32 South Slavic marauders in the garrison.

For the first time in the Fifteen Years' War, there was a chance to recapture the castle and the town in 1594, but the German mercenaries of Košice Chief Captain Christoph Teuffenbach, who commanded the troops of Upper Hungary, abandoned the siege due to the harsh weather. In 1596, after three weeks of siege, Archduke Miksa's troops broke into the castle and concentrated not only the defenders but also the women and children. 3 large and 22 smaller caliber cannons were looted in the castle. However, the success proved to be temporary: the Austrian armies did not take up the fight in III. Mehmed with his main army marching towards Eger, but they abandoned the castle and retreated towards Esztergom.

 

The fortifications were restored by the Turks, but in November 1603 they were occupied again by the troops of Imperial General Christoph von Rusworm, but again only for a short time.

Turkish rule ended in 1686, when, after Buda was locked in a siege ring, the defenders fled the armies of Imperial Generals Heissler and Mercy to the more defensible Eger without a fight.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, most serfs from the rest of the country settled in Sixty. Their main task was to repair lands degraded in Turkish times. Therefore, mainly animals were bred, but viticulture was also restarted. The organization of the town was also revived: in 1687 the provostship was reorganized, in 1689 a post office, in 1693 a customs office was established, and in 1700 the parish was already functioning again.

Sixty played a serious role during the Rákóczi War of Independence, as II. Ferenc Rákóczi ordered the fortification of the castle in 1703 in order to be able to resist the imperial armies around Buda. However, the fortified castle did not acquire any major significance, and the Kurucs finally gave up in 1710 without a fight.

The defunct fortifications were probably destroyed by the new landlord, Prince Thomas of Gundacker Starhemberg - he bought the manor of Hatvan from the king in 1711, but then had to negotiate with the old claimants for many years, so it was not until 1729 that he got into the manor's possession. Meanwhile, most of the old dwellings have been restored, much of the arable land has been broken, serf plots have been set up, although half of the population has survived married cellar living from viticulture.

Prince Antal I Grassalkovich bought the estate in Hatvan in 1734 for two hundred thousand forints. He settled German craftsmen, viticultural celery, and even landowners in the city, and gave them more discounts and exemptions than the Hungarians. This led to Hungarian-German ethnic conflicts, because after the tax-free years, the Germans did not want to bear the public taxes and burdens. They, on the other hand, complained that the leadership of the city remained in the hands of the Hungarians even when the number of German serfs already exceeded that of the Hungarians (in 1765 there were still 52 Hungarians and 45 German farmers living in Hatvan). At the request of the Germans, in 1764 Grassalkovich appointed a German judge in addition to the Hungarian judge. The conflicts were smoothed by the deterioration of the fate of the Germans.

Antal Grassalkovich created a modern manor around the city. A post-production manufactory was also established in the town in 1762, but it was not competitive enough, so it soon ceased to exist.

Population growth slowed towards the end of the 18th century; their number:
In 1786 2108,
In 1821 2088,
In 1849 there were 2545 people;
In 1786, 439 families were counted,
And in 1851 577.

The Grassalkovichs accumulated a great deal of debt over time, so in 1827 the manor was placed under custody.

The Grassalkovich family in 1841 Grassalkovich III. Antalal is excited. With this, the fate of the estates became utterly questionable. The Viennese castle and the Schönau an der Triesting estate became privately owned. The Gödöllő and Hatvan estates were inherited by his nephew, Mihály Viczay, but he could not pay the terrible debts, so he sold them to a banker, Baron György Sina. He later became the property of his son, Baron Sina Simon, and later became the property of a Belgian consortium.

Before the Revolution and War of Independence of 1848-49, 423 houses were counted; of which 14 belonged to the lordship, 135 to the landowners, 267 to the celery, and 7 to others.

Sixty gained an important military role in the War of Independence of 1848-49. On April 2, 1849, one of the victorious battles of the Spring Campaign was fought here, and after July 12, it became the headquarters of the Russians.

The serious boom of Hatvan began in 1867, when the Pest – Hatvan – Losonc – Zólyom – Banská Bystrica – Ruttka railway (which later became the first line of MÁV after its bankruptcy and nationalization) was built, and capitalization began as a result of the compromise. As a result of the construction of the railway, Ignác Deutsch bought the former estate of the Grassalkovich family from the bank of Brussels in 1867 with the castle in a completely dilapidated state. In 1879, when the king made his sons noble, this estate was given the first name “Hatvani”.

Later, the railway importance of the city increased further, after the Hatvan – Miskolc railway line was opened in 1870, and in 1873 the Hatvan – Szolnok railway line. With this, the city has become one of the major railway junctions in Hungary, and it has become largely urbanized.

Sixty's first savings bank was founded in 1873. In the 1870s, settlements throughout the country were declassified as market towns. Sixty then became a large village, and from 1886 the market town could no longer be used as a title.

In 1889, the Deutsch family in Hatvan founded the Hatvan Sugar Factory, which was one of the largest sugar factories in Europe at the time. Növénynemesítő Rt. Was founded by Sándor Hatvany-Deutsch at the beginning of the 20th century. As a result of the economic boom of dualism, between 1867 and 1914 the population of the city almost tripled.

 

Many men fell in World War I. The sugar factory was nationalized during the Soviet republic. On August 3, 1919, the invading Romanian army executed fifty Red soldiers. After the consolidation of the counter-revolutionary system, Hatvan's development slowed down, but living standards improved slightly.

The establishment of the Hatvan Tomato Cannery was initiated by Endre Hatvany in the late 1920s - the “Golden Pheasant” brand is still popular today.

World War II brought great changes in Hatvan's life. In 1939, Polish refugees arrived in the city, including many Jews. From 1941, after Hungary joined the war, many soldiers from Hatvan lost their lives on the battlefields. A ghetto was set up in sixty, and then a gathering camp was also set up in the sugar factory area. From here, almost the entire Jewish population of Heves County was transported to Auschwitz, an extermination camp. On September 20, 1944, Anglo-American bombers destroyed hundreds of civilians and destroyed the station and its surroundings to the ground. In November 1944, the Red Army reached the city limits, and the fighting caused another severe devastation. The city fell on November 25, 1944.

Much of the population of the city, which was essentially destroyed to the ground, died or was taken prisoner of war. As part of the reorganization, Sixty was transformed into a city. They established a folk dormitory and established a temporary hospital.

With the consolidation of communist power, Sixty showed a two-way development. On the one hand, the city was characterized by large-scale industrialization and construction, and on the other hand, the authorities removed a large number of people undesirable to the system, including those protesting for religious freedom in Újhatvan, so they sent many to the forced labor camps in Recsk and Hortobágy. In 1956, the train station was rebuilt, and then schools and other public institutions were established in the city.