Kazincbarcika is a town in northern Hungary, in
Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county. It is located in the Borsod industrial
area, 24 km north of Miskolc, in the Sajó valley. It is the third
largest settlement in the county after Miskolc and Ózd. It is the
seat of the Kazincbarcika district.
Its growth into a city is
due to the industrialization that began after the Second World War.
Its predecessors are industrial settlements, Sajókazinc mining
village and Barcika, which has been home to the power plant since
the 1920s. The two settlements merged in 1947 took on their present
names the following year. In 1954 it was given the status of a city
and another village was added to it, Berente. At that time,
Kazincbarcika already had eleven thousand inhabitants, which tripled
in twenty years, thanks to its largest employer, the Borsod Chemical
Plant, which attracts a lot of labor and is still one of the most
important companies in the region under the name BorsodChem Rt.
Kazincbarcika suffered from the years around the change of regime,
as did most of the industrial cities, but managed to recover. In
1999, Berente broke away from the city.
It is located in the industrial area of Borsod, in the Sajó valley,
24 kilometers north-northwest of the county seat Miskolc.
The
neighboring settlements: Szuhakálló from the north, Múcsony from the
northeast, Berente from the east, Alacska from the southeast, Kondo from
the south, Tardona and Dédestapolcsány from the southwest, Bánhorváti,
Nagybarca and Sajóivánka from the west, and Sajókaza from the northwest.
Approach
Its most important road access route is highway 26,
which runs through the Sajó valley, and thus also through the inner
city. It is connected to Múcson by road 2606, and to Tardona and through
it to Dédestapolcsán by side road 25 127.
Among the domestic
railway lines, it is touched by the Miskolc–Bánréve–Ózd railway line,
which has two stops in its area: from Miskolc, first the Kazincbarcika
lower stop, on the northeastern edge of the inland area, next to the
railway crossing of road 2606, and Kazincbarcika railway station, in the
northwestern part of the inland area part of which road access is
provided only by municipal roads.
Kazincbarcika, as its name suggests, was created by
the merger of several settlements.
Sajókazinc was first
mentioned in 1240 as Kazincz. At that time it was owned by the Kazai
Kakas family belonging to the Rátót genus. The ancient nest of the
Kazai Kakas family was Kazán, but in addition to Kazán, his estate
also extended to Kazincz, Igrici, Galgócz and Divény.
It was
an agricultural settlement until the 19th century, then from 1850,
when the coal mine was opened, the emphasis was on industry. Barcika
was created from the merger of Lower and Upper Barcika, and although
a mine was opened here at the end of the 19th century, the
industrial character here remained secondary to agriculture
throughout. However, in the early 1920s, a power plant was built to
supply electricity to the whole of South Borsod, so Barcika also
began to attract labor.
During the post-World War II
industrialization, the two settlements became increasingly important
and began to grow even more. They were officially merged in 1947,
for the time being under the name Sajókazinc, and then in 1948 the
formed large village took the name Kazincbarcika. It was granted
city status in 1954, and in the same year the expanding settlement
merged the municipality of Berente. At that time, it had more than
11,000 inhabitants.
In the 1960s, Kazincbarcika continued to
develop, attracting labor to the Borsod Chemical Plant and actively
participating in the development of the city. In the 1970s, the
population reached thirty thousand.
Mining and industry also
went into crisis in the 1980s, and this only intensified during the
years of regime change. Unemployment has also reached significant
levels in Kazincbarcika. From the mid-1990s, it seems, the city
already knew the hardest times and could slowly start to develop
again. Borsod Chemical Plant operates on the site of the Borsod
Chemical Plant. BorsodChem Zrt. Is one of the leading companies in
the region. Its field of activity is the production and processing
of plastic raw materials, the production of isocyanates. The number
of employees in 2014 exceeded 2,500.
In 1999, Berente
separated from the city and became an independent village.
During the 2011 census, 87.8% of the inhabitants declared themselves Hungarian, 2.9% Gypsy, 0.2% Polish, 0.5% German (12.1% did not declare; due to dual identities, the total is higher can be at 100%). The religious distribution was as follows: Roman Catholic 21.8%, Reformed 18.2%, Greek Catholic 3.8%, Lutheran 0.5%, non-denominational 27.2% (26.9% did not declare).
Bicycle path network
The expansion of the Kazincbarcika bicycle
path network started in 2011. The first phase of the development,
fitting organically to the already existing cycle path, ran from the
main entrance of BorsodChem to the Irinyi János Református Education
Center - Kindergarten, Primary School, Technical School, Vocational High
School and School of Education, as well as on Józáchnát út to the
Egressy út roundabout. The second line was built from Józáchnát út
through Mátyás király út to the junction of Herbolyai út, this line was
followed by the section between Herbolyai út and Tárna út.
The
bicycle path built on the route of Jószáchőt út-Építők útja-Tardonai
út-Mátyás király út has solved the safe cycling traffic in the city's
interior, and at the same time it also provides a connection to earlier
sections. The cycle path was separated from the public road, led on a
separate track, but was built using different techniques in some places.
The construction of the second phase, with a total length of 3.2
kilometers, ended in the spring of 2014. The city of Kazincbarcika won
more than HUF 100 million for the project implemented within the
framework of the New Széchenyi Plan.
Kazincbarcika became one of
the fifty-five municipalities that received an award in 2016 in the
"Cycle-Friendly" competition of the Ministry of National Development and
the Cycling Hungary Association. In the application material, the
currently existing bicycle path network and related facilities, as well
as future bicycle transport development plans, were presented.
On behalf of Kazincbarcika City Municipality, Barcika Art Kft. announced a tender for the placement of permanent works of art in residential and public buildings in Kazincbarcika. The tender was related to the Swiss Contribution to the Enlarged Europe - Cooperation Program with Hungary Regional Development Priority I project entitled "Job-creating development of Kazincbarcika and its catchment area". In the implementation of KolorCity Kazincbarcika between 2013 and 2016, one facade of 30 residential and public buildings in Kazincbarcika was renovated with modern large-scale works of art. By 2022, the number of murals had risen to 45.
They were born here
Reformed bishop József Paksi Szathmári on
March 12, 1763 (Sajókazincon).
Composer, writer, actor Béni Egressy
on April 21, 1814 (in Sajókazinco, as the son of the local reformed
minister).
Church writer and orientalist Jakab Singer on December 13,
1867 (registered in Sajókazinc).
Painter Janó Bari on May 13, 1955.
Actress Gabriella Tatar on August 14, 1967.
Szilárd Somodi-Hornyák on
September 22, 1970.
Angelika R. Kelényi on December 2, 1970.
Football player Péter Lipcsei on March 28, 1972.
Viczián Ottó Jászai
Mari award-winning actor on June 5, 1974
Gábor Kalácska radio
presenter, music editor on November 28, 1974.
Actor Krisztián Dányi
on January 16, 1975.
Actor Simon Kornél on September 1, 1976.
Actress Dóra Jancsó on February 9, 1978.
Fitness trainer Réka Rubint
on June 28, 1978.
Dávid Bartus, Dean of the Faculty of Arts of ELTE
(2020– ) in 1978.
Juhász Hajnalka, lawyer, politician, member of
parliament on July 28, 1980.
Tamás Decsi Olympic bronze medalist,
world and European champion Hungarian fencer on October 15, 1982.
Edit Dara is a theater dancer and model on October 20, 1985.
Rapper
Dénes Rizner "Deniz" on August 27, 1986.
Dávid Szabó (nickname:
"Giraffe"), volleyball player with a bronze medal in the club world
championship on January 13, 1990.
Kitti Szász, four-time world
champion freestyle soccer player on August 31, 1991.
Handball player
Planeta Szimonetta on December 12, 1993.
Football player László
Kleinheisler on April 8, 1994.
Dávid Ivanyik U14 World Cup winning
bowler on October 15, 2006