Kőszeg

Kőszeg
Güns

Coat of arms
Kőszeg
Güns

Location of Kőszeg

Coordinates: 47°22′55″N 16°33′08″E / 47.38191°N 16.55221°E / 47.38191; 16.55221Coordinates: 47°22′55″N 16°33′08″E / 47.38191°N 16.55221°E / 47.38191; 16.55221
Country  Hungary
County Vas
Area
 • Total 54.66 km2 (21.10 sq mi)
Population (2012)[1]
 • Total 12,055 Increase
 • Density 219.90/km2 (569.5/sq mi)
 • Demonym kőszegi
Population by ethnicity
 • Hungarians 93.4%
 • Germans 3.2%
 • Croats 1.6%
 • Romanians 0.1%
 • Others 1.7%
Population by Religion
 • Roman Catholics 72.2%
 • Lutherans 8.6%
 • Atheists 5.5%
 • Calvinists 2.5%
 • Others 11.2%
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 • Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code 9730
Area code(s) 94

Kőszeg (German: Güns, Prekmurje dialect: Küseg, Slovak: Kysak, Slovene: Kiseg, Croatian: Kiseg) is a town in Vas county, Hungary. The town is famous for its historical character.

History

The origins of the only free royal town in the historical garrison county of Vas (Eisenburg) go back to the third quarter of the thirteenth century. It was founded by the Volfer family, a branch of the Héder clan, who had settled in Hungary in 1157 AD.

Sometime before 1274 Heinrich II and his son Ivan moved the court of the Kőszegi, a breakaway branch of the family, from Güssing to Kőszeg (Güns). For decades, the town was the seat of the dukes of Kőszeg (Güns).

Only in 1327 did Charles Robert of Anjou finally break the power of the Kőszegi family in Western Transdanubia, and a year later, in (1328), elevated the town to royal status. The town boundaries were fixed during the Anjou dynasty (1347–1381).

In 1392 the royal town became a fiefdom, when the Palatinate Nicolas Garai repaid a bond paid to King Sigismund of Luxembourg by the Ellerbach family from Monyorókerék. The Garai era ended in 1441.

In 1677 the secondary school, Jurisics Miklós Gimnázium (JMG), was founded. It is the oldest operating International School in Hungary. The International Baccalaureate (IB) program, which most English-speaking students at the school follow, was created at the Grande Boissière campus. It is a bilingual school, with instruction in Hungarian, French, German, Italian, and English. The International School is a testing center for the U.S. college boards (SAT, ACT,etc.), as well as the British IGCSE exam.

In 2006, the Herald Tribune listed it as one of the top ten international schools in the world.[2]

According to the Good Schools Guide International, "Students receive a truly international education and as a result, leave as rounded and worldly young people.

Little War in Hungary

In the third wave of the great wars against the Turks in the sixteenth century, Kőszeg became the major flashpoint of the campaign of 1532. Between August 5-30, Grand Vizier Ibrahim led 19 major assaults against the town. Under the leadership of the town and fort captain, Nikola Jurišić, a small garrison repelled an Ottoman force numbering some 80,000 men in the Siege of Kőszeg. After the final unsuccessful attack, the Turkish leadership were forced to decamp due to an uprising by the Janissaries. According to tradition, the last contingent of withdrawing troops were meant to have left the city limits around 11 o'clock. As a memorial to this historic heroism, the church clocks in the town have read 11 o'clock since 1777.

After the Turkish wars, in 1695 the garrison and surrounding areas of Kőszeg fell into the hands of the Esterházy dukes, where it remained until 1931.

The town lost its strategic importance after the Rákóczi-Liberation Wars of 1703–1711. Along with Szombathely, Kőszeg was the most important fortress for the kuruc military leadership from 1705–1708, to liberate and hold onto the areas west of the Rába.

The free royal town enjoyed the longest period of peace in its history during the eighteenth century. For the first time in the history of the town, there was an attempt, in 1712, to replace the population loss in the town by trying to attract colonists, and by founding Schwabendorf (Kőszegfalva).

Kőszeg had already lost its leading role in the garrison county of Vas by the mid nineteenth century. Only a few workshops survived the production crisis within the guild system during the Hungarian reformation of the early nineteenth century. The founding of public companies, societies, and the first financial institution in the county were the first signs of civic development in the town. Alongside the by then typical society made up of small businesses and small traders, Kőszeg developed during this time into a town of schools, sanatoria, and garrisons.

World War II and the Holocaust

During World War II, the Jews of Kőszeg were among the last to be deported to Auschwitz in the summer of 1944.[2] Later that year Nazis established a slave labor camp at Kőszeg where 4,500 died of typhus.[2] With the impending arrival of the Red Army in 1945, the camp was liquidated. The camp's 2,000 survivors endured a "death march" of about 300 kilometres (190 mi) for several weeks over the Alps to Ebensee.[2]

When the Red Army approached Kőszeg in March, 1945, the Hungarian commander, Béla Király, surrendered the city to spare it further destruction.[3]

After Communism

Since 1992 Kőszeg is again living under a normal administrative system and a market economy. The financially feeble town is looking at options for renewal through an injection of capital from outside investors and is seeking support from government agencies and the European Union.

Kőszeg has managed to retain its natural charm and the beauty of its architecture. Only the bastion gates have been damaged significantly. The structure of the town remains unaltered.

Today Kőszeg is one of the most attractive towns in Hungary (also called Hungary's Jewel Box) and is a tourist destination. Kőszeg was awarded the Hild Prize (Hungarian architecture prize) in 1978 for preserving its architectural heritage.

Every year, it hosts the Castle Days at the castle there, commemorating and reenacting the siege by Ottoman Turks on the way to Vienna, in which the defenders were able to hold out.

Demographics

In 1880 Kőszeg had 7,301 inhabitants with ethnic German majority (in 1495, 1715, and 1784 a German majority existed also).[4] The German citizens mainly were Lutherans, as in Sopron. During Austro-Hungarian times the city population was magyarized.

After the Second World War officially, 117 Germans were expelled,[5] but in fact more German-speaking people were deported because the town's population declined from 10,320 (in 1941) to 8,780 (in 1949). During the communist era the remaining Germans assimilated to the Magyars. In 2001 Kőszeg had 11,844 inhabitants, 93.4% Magyars, 3.2% Germans, 1.6% Croats. The distribution of religions were: 72.2% Roman Catholic, 8.6% Lutheran, 2.5% Calvinist, 1.1% others, 5.5% Atheist, 10.1% no answer, unknown (2001 census).

Sights of interest

Sport

Although the ski jumping facility is a small one, it is the only still in use in the country.[6]

International relations

Twin towns - Sister cities

Kőszeg is a member of the Douzelage, a unique town twinning association of 24 towns across the European Union. This active town twinning began in 1991 and there are regular events, such as a produce market from each of the other countries and festivals.[7][8] Discussions regarding membership are also in hand with three further towns (Agros in Cyprus, Škofja Loka in Slovenia, and Tryavna in Bulgaria).

Spain Altea, Spain - 1991
Germany Bad Kötzting, Germany - 1991
Italy Bellagio, Italy - 1991
Republic of Ireland Bundoran, Ireland - 1991
France Granville, France - 1991
Denmark Holstebro, Denmark - 1991
Belgium Houffalize, Belgium - 1991
Netherlands Meerssen, the Netherlands - 1991
Luxembourg Niederanven, Luxembourg - 1991
Greece Preveza, Greece - 1991
Portugal Sesimbra, Portugal - 1991
United Kingdom Sherborne, United Kingdom - 1991
Finland Karkkila, Finland - 1997
Sweden Oxelösund, Sweden - 1998
Austria Judenburg, Austria - 1999
Poland Chojna, Poland - 2004
Hungary Kőszeg, Hungary - 2004
Latvia Sigulda, Latvia - 2004
Czech Republic Sušice, Czech Republic - 2004
Estonia Türi, Estonia - 2004
Slovakia Zvolen, Slovakia - 2007
Lithuania Prienai, Lithuania - 2008
Malta Marsaskala, Malta - 2009
Romania Siret, Romania - 2010

As well as being a member of Douzelage, the town also is twinned with Vaihingen an der Enz in Baden-Württemberg, Mödling in Austria, Senj in Croatia, Nitrianske Hrnčiarovce (Nyitragerencsér) in Slovakia.

Notable people

References

  1. ↑ "MAGYARORSZÁG HELYSÉGNÉVTÁRA, 2012". Ksh.hu. Retrieved 2013-03-26.
  2. 1 2 3 Gilbert, Martin (18 October 2002). The Routledge Atlas of the Holocaust (3rd ed.). Routledge. p. 220. ISBN 0-415-28146-6.
  3. ↑ Partos, Gabriel (11 July 2009). "Bela Kiraly: Soldier who led Hungarian resistance against the Soviet Union during the 1956 uprising". The Independent. London: Independent Educational Publishing. Retrieved 2014-02-06. Days before that end came for Hungary, in March 1945, Kiraly was put in charge of defending the town of Koeszeg on the Austrian border. To avoid its destruction, he surrendered to the Red Army.
  4. ↑ A népesség változó etnikai arculata Magyarország mai területén (Kocsis Károly, Bottlik Zsolt, MTA Földrajztudományi Kutatóintézet, Budapest 2009, ISBN 978-963-9545-19-9 (Changing ethnic composition in Hungary, Geographical Institution of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences)
  5. ↑ Deportation of Germans from Hungary, List of the settlements/ Kőszeg
  6. ↑ Kőszeg
  7. ↑ "Douzelage.org: Home". www.douzelage.org. Retrieved 2009-10-21.
  8. ↑ "Douzelage.org: Member Towns". www.douzelage.org. Retrieved 2009-10-21.
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