Csongrád (former county)

Csongrád (Hungarian: Csongrád, Serbian: Čongrad or Чонград) was a historic administrative county (comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory, which was smaller than that of present Csongrád county, is presently in southern Hungary and northern Serbia. The capital of the county was Szentes.

1 Name
2 Geography
3 History
4 Demographics
5 Subdivisions

[edit] Name

Name Csongrád/Čongrad is Slavic by origin. In Slavic languages this name means "a black city" (čon/čorni = black, grad = city/town). Indeed, the county was named after a town of Csongrád.

[edit] Geography

Csongrád county shared borders with the Hungarian counties Pest-Pilis-Solt-Kiskun, Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok, Békés, Csanád, Torontál and Bács-Bodrog. The river Tisza flowed through the county. Its area was 3,544 km² around 1910.

[edit] History

Csongrád county arose as one of the first comitatus of the Kingdom of Hungary, in the 11th century. It was taken by the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century, and by the Habsburg Monarchy in the end of the 17th century.

In 1920 the Treaty of Trianon assigned a small part of the territory of the county (a small area around Horgoš in northern Vojvodina) to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (renamed to Yugoslavia in 1929). The rest remained in Hungary.

After World War II, the southern part of former Csanád-Arad-Torontál county (the Hungarian part of pre-1918 Torontál county and the south-western part of pre-1918 Csanád county) was added to Csongrád county.

[edit] Demographics

According to the census of 1910, the county had 325,568 inhabitants.

Population by language (1910 census):

Hungarian = 319,274
German = 2,862
Serbian = 1,235

[edit] Subdivisions

In the early 20th century, the subdivisions of Csongrád county were:

Districts (járás)
District	Capital
Csongrád	Csongrád
Tiszáninnen	Kiskundorozsma
Tiszántúl	Mindszent
Urban counties (törvényhatósági jogú város)
Hódmezővásárhely
Szeged
Urban districts (rendezett tanácsú város)
Szentes