Békéscsaba

Békéscsaba (Tschabe, Bichişciaba, Békešská Čaba) is a city in Southeast Hungary, the capital of the county Békés.

Geography
According to the 2001 census, the city has a total area of 193.94 km2.

Name
The name of the city comes from the word "Békés", which means "peaceful" in Hungarian, and "Csaba", a popular Hungarian male given name of Turkish origin.

History
The area has been inhabited since the ancient times. In the Iron Age the area had been conquered by the Scythians, by the Celts, then by the Huns. After the Hungarian Conquest, there were many small villages in the area.

The village of Csaba was first mentioned in the 1330s. Besides Csaba, eight other villages stood where now the town stands. When the Turks conquered the southern and central parts of Hungary, and these territories became part of the Ottoman Empire, the town survived, but it became extinct during the fights against the Turks in the 17th century.

In 1715 Csaba is mentioned as a deserted place, but only one year later its name can be found in a document mentioning the tax-paying towns. It is likely that the new Csaba was founded by János György Harruckern, who earned distinction in the freedom fight against the Turks and bought the area of Békés county. By 1847 the town was among the twenty largest towns of Hungary, with a population of 22,000. Nevertheless, Csaba was still like a large village, with muddy streets and crowded houses.

By 1858 the railway line reached the town. This brought development; new houses and factories were built, the town began to prosper. Still, by the end of the 19th century the unemployment caused great tension, and in 1891 a revolt was oppressed by the help of Romanian soldiers. One of the most important person in the politics of the town was András L. Áchim, who founded a peasants' party and succeeded in having Békéscsaba elevated to the rank of "city with council".

World War I brought suffering to the town. Between 1919 and 1920 Békéscsaba was under Romanian occupation. After the Treaty of Trianon Hungary lost its most important Southern cities, Arad and Oradea, and Békéscsaba had to take over their roles, becoming the most important town of the area.

Between the two world wars the recession caused poverty and unemployment, and a flood in 1925 didn't help, either.

During World War II battles weren't fought in the area, but two tragic events shook the town in 1944: between June 24 and 26th over 3,000 Jews were sent to Auschwitz. A few of the Békéscsaba families who were lost at Auschwitz, Dachau.

On 21 September, the British and American Air Force bombed the railway station and its surroundings, killing more than 100 people. On 6 October 1944 the Soviet army occupied Békéscsaba.

During the Socialist times Békéscsaba became the county seat of Békés (1950), and began to develop into one of the most important centres of food industry of Hungary. After the change of regime in 1990 the industry got into a crisis, and lots of people lost their jobs. Today the crisis seems to be over and Békéscsaba is prospering again.

Population
Ethnic groups (2001 census):
 * Hungarians - 93.8%
 * Slovaks - 6%
 * Germans - 0.6%
 * Romanians - 0.4%

Religions (2001 census):
 * Roman Catholic - 24.2% (mainly Magyar descendants)
 * Lutheran - 20.5% (mainly Slovak descendants)
 * Calvinist - 10.9% (only Magyar descendants)
 * Other - 2.1% (mainly Christian)
 * Atheist - 30.5%
 * No answer, unknown - 10.8%

Tourist sights

 * Baroque church (18th century)
 * Classicist church (19th century)
 * City hall (designed by Miklós Ybl, 1873)
 * Mihály Munkácsy Museum
 * Mór Jókai Theatre
 * Slovak folklore museum

Born in Békéscsaba

 * Ján Valašťan Dolinský (1892–1965), Slovak composer
 * Károly Klimó (1936), artist
 * László Vidovszky (1944), composer and pianist
 * Ádám Szepesi (1945), high jumper
 * Gyula Hegyi (1951), politician
 * Henrietta Ónodi (1974), gymnast
 * Béla Szabados (1974), swimmer
 * Eniko Mihalik (1987), model
 * Agnes Kesmarki (1981), supermodel

Died in Békéscsaba

 * Sándor Erkel (1900), composer, son of Ferenc Erkel

Twin towns — Sister cities
Békéscsaba is twinned with:
 * 🇷🇴 Beiuş, Romania
 * 🇫🇮 Mikkeli, Finland
 * 🇷🇴 Odorheiu Secuiesc, Romania
 * 🇵🇱 Skoczów, Poland
 * 🇵🇱 Tarnowskie Góry, Poland
 * 🇸🇰 Trenčín, Slovakia
 * 🇺🇦 Uzhhorod, Ukraine
 * 🇩🇪 Wittenberg, Germany
 * 🇷🇸 Zrenjanin, Serbia
 * 🇷🇺 Penza, Russia
 * 🇷🇴 Salonta, Romania