Veľké Kapušany
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Veľké Kapušany (Hungarian: Nagykapos) is a small town on the eastern plains of Slovakia, not far from the Ukrainian border.
The name "Kapušany" is probably derived from the Hungarian word kapu, meaning "gate".
[edit] History
The territory of the town has been settled since time immemorial (findings from the Neolithic period). The first written references to the settlement stems from 1211 ("Kapos") and 1214 ("Copus"). The setllement was awarded a town status in 1430. The town was the second largest settlement (after Uzhhorod) of the Uzh county and frequently served as a temporary or permanent station for migrants (Germans, Rusyns, Poles, Hungarians etc.) from the east to the west.
In the town square there is a garden with a plaque commemorating the day the Germans marched into Veľké Kapušany in 1944. This is significant as both Jews and Romas were persecuted and murdered by the Nazis during World War II. At that time, Veľké Kapušany was part of Hungary (based on the First Vienna Award). The Hungarian government allied with the Germans, exiling Budapest's population of 10,000 Jews to a ghetto in Pest while approximately 500,000 Jews living in towns like Nagykapos in the Hungarian countryside, along with untold numbers of Roma people, were rounded up and deported to concentration camps where most perished.
The following villages were merged with the town: Čepeľ and Malé Kapušany (after 1913), Veškovce (1964).
[edit] Characteristics
City parts:
- Veľké Kapušany proper
- Veškovce
Wood processing, food and building materials industries and Slovak and Hungarian high schools are located there as is a railroad transfer facility for goods on the railroad to Ukraine.
The ethnic population of the town is dominated by Hungarian speaking Roma people along with a smaller population of people of mixed Slovak, Ukrainian, and Hungarian descent. Many Communist remnants remain, notably the infamous huge, plain, ugly apartment buildings of the Communist era, where mainly poor, Roma people now live. The rest of the population lives in mostly comfortable-looking homes and farms outside of the main thoroughfare but still within the town's borders.
There are several churches, but no synagogue in Veľké Kapušany. On the outskirts of the town there is a heavily damaged Jewish cemetery.
[edit] External links
