Gönc is a town in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county in Northern

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

, 55 kilometers from county capital

Miskolc Miskolc ( , , ; Czech language, Czech and sk, Miškovec; german: Mischkolz; yi, script=Latn, Mishkoltz; ro, Mișcolț) is a city in northeastern Hungary, known for its heavy industry. With a population of 161,265 (1 Jan 2014) Miskolc is the ...

. It is the northernmost town of Hungary and the second smallest town of the county.

History

Gönc has been inhabited since the

Conquest of Hungary Hungary in its modern (post-1946) borders roughly corresponds to the Great Hungarian Plain (the Pannonian Basin). During the Iron Age, it was located at the crossroads between the cultural spheres of the Celtic tribes (such as the Scordisci, Boii ...

. In the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

it was royal estate and an important

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...

. Between 1570 and 1647, it was the seat of the county of Abaúj county and, as a result, it developed into an ever-growing market town. Although the lands in this region were owned by Magyar landlords, Gönc itself was a crown possession. In the 13th century the court invited German craftsmen to settle at Gönc, as was the practice in many other settlements. As a result of this, the village became more and more dominated by the new settlers. During the age of the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

, Gönc became a cultural centre. It was here that

Gáspár Károli Gáspár is a Hungarian masculine given name, equivalent to English Jasper Jasper, an aggregate of microgranular quartz and/or cryptocrystalline chalcedony and other mineral phases,Kostov, R. I. 2010. Review on the mineralogical systematics ...

, the first to translate the Bible into Hungarian in 1590, served as a minister. He is commemorated by a statue standing in front of the Calvinist church. In 1687 the Protestant college of

Sárospatak Sárospatak (german: Potok am Bodroch; la, Potamopolis; sk, Šarišský Potok or ; ) is a town in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County, northern Hungary. It lies northeast from Miskolc, in the Bodrog river valley. The town, often called simply ''Pa ...

temporarily moved to Gönc. After the

Treaty of Trianon The Treaty of Trianon (french: Traité de Trianon, hu, Trianoni békeszerződés, it, Trattato del Trianon) was prepared at the Paris Peace Conference and was signed in the Grand Trianon château in Versailles on 4 June 1920. It forma ...

Hungary lost its northern parts and Gönc became close to the new border, losing its importance in trade. Gönc was granted town status again in 2001.

References

External links

* in Hungarian * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gonc Populated places in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County