Mezőberény

Mezőberény (German: Sarwasch, Slovak: Sarvaš) is a town in Békés county in southeastern Hungary. The Hungarian placename Szarvas means 'deer' in English.

History
The first agricultural high-school in the Kingdom of Hungary was established here by a Slovakian enlightenment scholar and engineer Samuel Tešedík (in Hungarian: Sámuel Tessedik). The city was re-settled by Slovaks (among others) in the 18th century, and many Slovaks still live in Szarvas. The town had 17771 Slovak and 7845 Hungarian inhabitants in 1900 and in 1920 had 7544 Slovak and 17224 Hungarian inhabitants. The geometrical centre-point of the Hungarian Kingdom (before 1920) was near Szarvas.

Modern times
Since 1990 Szarvas is home to the Ronald S. Lauder International Jewish Summer camp, where every year hundreds of children and adults from post-communist countries, the U.S., and India pour in for eight weeks to share fun, laughter, and exchange cultures. Today the camp is known as Szarvas International Jewish Youth Camp, and is a joint program of JDC Hungary, the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation and the Bálint JCC.

Sights

 * Szarvas Botanical Garden
 * Bolza Castle
 * Dry Mill
 * Samuel Tessedik Muzeum
 * Szarvas Spa
 * Csaky Castle
 * Mitrovszki Castle
 * Gyorgy Ruzicskay Art House
 * Lutheran Old Church
 * New Lutheran Church
 * Slovak Country House

Sports
1905 Szarvasi FC in Erzsebet liget

People

 * Roland Lipcsei
 * Endre Bajcsy-Zsilinszky, politician
 * Éva Novodomszky
 * György Ruzicskay, painter
 * Árpád Szendy, composer
 * Itamar Yaoz-Keszt, Israeli poet, translator

Twin towns — Sister cities
Szarvas is twinned with:
 * 🇸🇰 Poprad, Slovakia (since 1980)
 * 🇷🇴 Vlăhiţa, Romania (since 1994)
 * 🇷🇴 Baraolt, Romania (since 1997)
 * 🇸🇰 Malacky, Slovakia (since 2000)
 * 🇷🇴 Şimleu Silvaniei, Romania
 * 🇫🇮 Keuruu, Finland