Balassagyarmat

Balassagyarmat (formerly Balassa-Gyarmath, Jahrmarkt) is a town in northern Hungary. It was the seat of the Nógrád comitatus.

History
The town's coat-of-arms bears the Latin inscription "Civitas Fortissima" (the bravest city), because in January 1919 Czechoslovak troops crossed the demarcation line delineated in December 1918 in preparation for the Treaty of Trianon, illegally occupying towns south of the line, including Balassagyarmat. The local population managed to push back the Czechoslovak troops in a serious military encounter in which many of the civilian participants lost their lives.

The heroics of the town's people against the illegal and unprovoked invasion has been immortalised in the Kárpátia(hu) song "Civitas Fortissima"

Geography
The town lies on the left bank of the Ipoly river, which marks the state border with Slovakia.

Demographics
In 2001 Balassagyarmat had 18,474 inhabitants. The population were homogeneous with Hungarian majority (Magyars 98%, Roma 2%), 100% of the total population speak Hungarian as their mother tongue.

Famous people



 * Balassi (Balassa) family (means "from Balassa")
 * János Balassi
 * Bálint Balassi (aka Balassa) (1554, Zólyom - 1594), "Baron of Kékkő and (Balassa-)Gyarmat"
 * Josef Dobrovský (1753–1829), a Czech philologist and historian
 * Márk Rózsavölgyi (1789–1848)
 * Rabbi Maier Zipser (1815–1869, Rechnitz)
 * Károly Bérczy (1821–1867)
 * Iván Nagy (1824–1898), genealogist, heraldic, historian (hu)
 * Father János Zádori (1831, Kátlovce - 1887), a Hungarian Ecclesiastical writer, lived here
 * Albert Kenessey (1889–1973)
 * Lőrinc Szabó (de Gáborján) (1900, Miskolc - 1957), a poet and literary translator, lived here
 * Lajos Ligeti (1902–1987), orientalist (hu)
 * Ilona Tokay (1907–1988)
 * Ernő Zórád (1911–2004) (hu)
 * Károly Jobbágy (1921–1998) (hu)
 * Iván Markó (born 1947), dancer (hu)
 * Zoltán Szlezák (born 1967), football player
 * Orsolya Szatmári (born 1975) (hu)
 * Sigmund Streisinger (born 1880-1942) (hu) - Famous glazer; moved to the United States in the early 1900s

Twin towns — Sister cities
Balassagyarmat is twinned with:
 * Heimenkirch