Cserdi ( hr, Čerda) is a village in

Baranya Baranya or Baranja may refer to: * Baranya (region) or Baranja, a region in Hungary and Croatia * Baranya County, a county in modern Hungary * Baranya County (former), a county in the historic Kingdom of Hungary * Baranya, Hungarian name of villag ...

county,

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 ...

. The town, with a population of around 350, is majority Roma. From 2006 to 2019 László Bogdán spearheaded a project that revitalized the town and its economy, becoming known as the "Cserdi miracle" and drawing international attention. The town is also the site of a

geological formation A geological formation, or simply formation, is a body of rock having a consistent set of physical characteristics ( lithology) that distinguishes it from adjacent bodies of rock, and which occupies a particular position in the layers of rock exp ...

"Cserdi miracle"

In the early 21st century, the town was in general disorder and had a very high crime rate that was estimated among the highest in Hungaryestimated to be between 300 and 600 cases a year. László Bogdán was mayor of Cserdi from 2006 to his death in 2020. In its obituary of him, ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Eco ...

'' wrote that he led a transformation of the town to an "orderly" town that could produce more food than it needed. This change was known as the "Cserdi miracle". Bogdán also worked to keep girls in school and provide sexual education to avoid teen pregnancies. In 2013 he established a program known as ''köcsögmentesités'' ("asshole elimination") which allowed young people to tour prisons in an attempt to lower crime rates. Bogdán also oversaw the construction of a memorial to Roma murdered in

the Holocaust in Hungary The Holocaust in Hungary was the dispossession, deportation, and systematic murder of more than half of the Hungarian Jews, primarily after the German occupation of Hungary in March 1944. At the time of the German invasion, Hungary had a Jewis ...

and constructed a bridge which connected two portions of the town, the Roma and the Hungarians. Bogdán's efforts to revitalize the town's economy began by growing potatoes. The crop was sold in Pécs and extras were donated to poor people around the region. This program raised the profile of Cserdi around the nation, including in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

. It became highly profitable for the town, and Bogdán was able to expand the program to cover , and include crops such as tomatoes, peppers, onion, paprika, and garlic. By 2017 the program employed over 80 percent of the village's labour force. Additionally, greenhouses totaling were developed as part of the program. The program was producing an average of 65 tons of food that could be sold or donated by 2017.

Population

In 2013 '' The Budapest Beacon'' wrote that the town had a population of 411 people. In 2016, ''

The Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles in electronic format as well as a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper ...

'' listed it as 426. In 2020 ''The Economist'' estimated that the town had a population of around 350. They noted the town was about 3/4 Roma.

Cserdi formation

The Cserdi conglomerate formation is a

dating to the

Paleozoic era The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. The name ''Paleozoic'' ( ;) was coined by the British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838 by combining the Greek words ''palaiós'' (, "old") and ''z ...

. The formation has around of rock (including polymictic conglomerate, sandstone and siltstone). The formation has been studied for its composition.

References

External links

Street map
{{authority control Populated places in Baranya County