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Zala
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99,98
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2001
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62 079
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621
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8900
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is the capital city of
Zala county, Western
Hungary . It is considered to be one of the greenest and the most flowery cities of Hungary.
Zalaegerszeg lies on the both side of the is approx. 213 km by car.
The area was already inhabited in the
Upper Paleolithic , according to archaeological findings (the oldest ones in Zala county.) Later the area has been inhabited by
Celts .
The town itself was first mentioned in
1247 as ''Egerscug'' and in
1293 as ''Egerszeg''. (''szeg'' means angle in Hungarian, and probably refers to the fact that the town was built where two rivers met.) King
Béla IV donated it to the diocese of
Veszprém in
1266 , thus Egerszeg became church property. Since Egerszeg lay somewhat far from Veszprém, the taxes the town paid often ended up in the pockets of local oligarchs like the Kőszegi family.
In the
14th Century Egerszeg was the largest town of the area. Between
1368 and
1389 it was a royal town for a short time, then
Sigismund I donated it to the Kanizsai family who traded it for another town with the bishop of Veszprém. Zalaegerszeg remained their property until
1848 .
In
1381 the town built a stone church. In
1421 Egerszeg was granted
Oppidum status, which meant they could pay taxes once a year and the citizens could elect their own judge. The population grew quickly, and by the
16th Century Egerszeg became the ''de facto'' centre of Zala comitatus.
In the
1530s development was brought to a halt. Taking advantage of the power of the king being weakened, the owners of the surrounding lands attacked the town often, and the
Ottomans already began to occupy Hungary after the
Battle Of Mohács in
1526 . From
1568 the town was fortified, a
Castle was built. The Ottomans attacked the town for the first time in the late
1570s , but they failed to capture it.
After
Kanizsa fell to the Ottomans, the strategic importance of Egerszeg grew, but the castle was severely damaged in
1616 and captured by the Ottomans for a short time in
1664 . The citizens suffered not only from the war, but from plagues and heavy taxes too.
Egerszeg, even though it was on the periphery of the comitatus, became its capital in the 18th century, mostly because the councils were always held there, because of its importance in the Ottoman times and because it wasn't the estate of a local lord, unlike the other towns in Zala. The county hall was built between
1730 and
1732 in
Baroque style, and for a long time it was the only significant building of the town. In the 1760s a large church and a barracks was built. Most of the citizens still not owned stone-built houses, and fires often destroyed the town, until
1826 , when stone buildings were built.
Until the early
19th Century there were only a few craftsmen and merchants in the town, because they had to pay taxes to the bishop who owned the city. By the
1830s 10% of the residents of the mostly Roman Catholic town were Jewish, but even they didn't give a boost to trade. Because of this, even though the town was the centre of administration, economically and culturally it wasn't really important. Even though it had about 3500 residents, it had only two primary schools. The cultural centres of the comitatus were
Kanizsa and
Keszthely .
Zalaegerszeg played only a minor role in the revolution and freedom fight in
1848 -
49 . In
1870 it lost its town status and became a village, which meant a decrease in prestige, even more so, since Nagykanizsa kept its town status. On
May 31 ,
1885 Zalaegerszeg became a town again. In
1887 the village of Ola was annexed to the town. In
1890 the railway line between Ukk and Csáktornya connected Zalaegerszeg to the railway system of the country. In
1895 several new buildings were built, including a new secondary school, a town hall, a hotel, a nursery school and a brick factory, but the town ran into debt and the mayor, Károly Kovács had to resigned. His successor, Lajos Botfy decreased the debt and could continue the development of the town, but in the early
20th Century Zalaegerszeg was still behind the other county seats in many ways.
The
1920s brought prosperation again; new buildings included the new post office, the railway station, the office of the fire department, the police headquarters, the monastery of the Notre Dame Order and a synagogue in Baroque style.
The most significant loss in
World War II was the
Deportation of the 1221 Jewish citizens to
Auschwitz . The city was freed from the
Nazis by the
Red Army on
March 28 ,
1945 . On the next local elections in
1949 the local branch of the
Communist party got only about 10% of the votes, still they became the leaders of the city.
The
1950s brought important changes. Zalaegerszeg got a more industrial profile with the construction of the
Textile factory and the discovery of
Oil resources in
1952 . The railway line was expanded, too. Lots of workers were commuting from the nearby villages, because it was almost impossible to find a flat in the city, so several residents of Zalaegerszeg (mostly those who were considered to be opposed to the
Socialist system) were forced to relocate.
The citizens took part in the
Revolution In 1956 . The revolution in the city began on
October 26 . The communist local government fled to
Körmend , and until the arrival of the
Soviet troops (
November 4 ) the city was governed by the Revolutionary Council.
In the
1960s and
1970s the city experienced a
Demographic Explosion . Several new flats were built, new residents moved into them, and the growing city absorbed lots of surrounding villages (Csácsbozsok, Botfa, Zalabesenyő, Bazita, Andráshida, Pózva).
After the end of Socialism Zalaegerszeg wasn't affected by economic recession as much as other cities were. The
1990s brough dynamic development to the city.
In
2001 , Zalaegerszeg hosted the
Central European Olympiad In Informatics (CEOI).
- Lajos Botfy (1847–1900), mayor
- Mátyás Czobor (1875–1957), mayor
- Ferenc Deák (1803–1876), member of parliament, minister of justice
- Alajos Dagré (1909–1984), historian of law
- Miklós Gábor (1919–1998), actor
- Dezső Keresztury (1904–1996), critic, literary historian
- Zsigmond Kisfaludi Strobl (1884–1975), sculptor
- Károly Kovács (1839–1904), mayor
- József Cardinal Mindszenty (1892–1975), cardinal, archbishop of Esztergom
- Dezső Pais (1886–1973), linguist
- Gyula Wlassics (1852–1937), minister of education
- Levente Bella (1976–), singer
Zalaegerszeg is
Twinned with:
