Szarvas (, ; ) is a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

Békés County Békés (, , ) is an administrative division (county or ''vármegye'') in south-eastern Hungary, on the border with Romania. It shares borders with the Hungarian counties Csongrád-Csanád, Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok, and Hajdú-Bihar. The capital ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much 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 south, Croatia and ...

Name

Placename Szarvas originated from the old Hungarian word ''szarvas'', which means

deer A deer (: deer) or true deer is a hoofed ruminant ungulate of the family Cervidae (informally the deer family). Cervidae is divided into subfamilies Cervinae (which includes, among others, muntjac, elk (wapiti), red deer, and fallow deer) ...

. Deer also can be found in the coat of arms of the town.

Location

Szarvas is located in the

Great Hungarian Plain The Great Hungarian Plain (also known as Alföld or Great Alföld, or ) is a plain occupying the majority of the modern territory of Hungary. It is the largest part of the wider Pannonian Plain (however, the Great Hungarian Plain was not par ...

upon the Körös River, southeast from

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

. Highways 44 and 443, and the

Mezőtúr Mezőtúr is a town in Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county in Hungary, located southeast from Budapest and 88 miles away by rail. It possesses important potteries. Large herds of cattle are reared on the communal lands, which are productive also of wheat ...

Orosháza Orosháza is a city situated in the westernmost part of Békés (county), Békés county, Hungary, on the Békés ridge bordered by the rivers River Maros, Maros and River Körös, Körös. Orosháza is an important culture, cultural, educational ...

- Mezőhegyes railway line also cross the town. The geographic centre of Hungary was near Szarvas before the

Treaty of Trianon The Treaty of Trianon (; ; ; ), often referred to in Hungary as the Peace Dictate of Trianon or Dictate of Trianon, was prepared at the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace Conference. It was signed on the one side by Hungary ...

; a memorial in a windmill shape now marks that location in a park on a bank of the Körös River across from the Arboretum.

History

According to the Hungarian Royal Treasury () it was an ethnic Hungarian town in 1495.Károly Kocsis (DSc, University of Miskolc) – Zsolt Bottlik (PhD, Budapest University) – Patrik Tátrai: Etnikai térfolyamatok a Kárpát-medence határon túli régióiban, Magyar Tudományos Akadémia (Hungarian Academy of Sciences) – Földrajtudományi Kutatóintézet (Academy of Geographical Studies); Budapest; 2006.; , CD Atlas The

Medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

town was ruined due to the Ottoman wars, native Hungarian population fled from the area. It was uninhabited until 1720, when Austrian baron Johann Georg Freiherr von Harruckern (György János Harruckern) invited mainly Slovak settlers from

Upper Hungary Upper Hungary (, "Upland"), is the area that was historically the northern part of the Kingdom of Hungary, now mostly present-day Slovakia. The region has also been called ''Felső-Magyarország'' ( literally: "Upper Hungary"; ). During the ...

to the deserted area. They built a brand new town by the help of Sámuel Tessedik, who invited engineers to plan the town. Tessedik also established the first agricultural school in Hungary.

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

church was built from 1786 to 1788, the

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

from 1808 to 1812. Town hall was built in 1820.Antal Papp: Magyarország (Hungary), Panoráma, Budapest, 1982, , p. 860, pp. 448-449 Hungarians overtook Slovaks in the 1920s, become the majority according to the census was held in 1930. Since 1990 Szarvas is home to the Ronald S. Lauder Szarvas International Jewish Youth Camp ().

Demographics

According to the 2011 census the total population of Szarvas was 16,954, of whom there were 14,325 (84.5%)

Hungarians Hungarians, also known as Magyars, are an Ethnicity, ethnic group native to Hungary (), who share a common Culture of Hungary, culture, Hungarian language, language and History of Hungary, history. They also have a notable presence in former pa ...

, 1,822 (10.8%)

Slovaks The Slovaks ( (historical Sloveni ), singular: ''Slovák'' (historical: ''Sloven'' ), feminine: ''Slovenka'' , plural: ''Slovenky'') are a West Slavic ethnic group and nation native to Slovakia who share a common ancestry, culture, history ...

, 489 (2.9%) Romani and 75 (0.4%)

Germans Germans (, ) are the natives or inhabitants of Germany, or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language. The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, constitution of Germany, imple ...

by ethnicity. 15.4% did not declare their ethnicity, excluding these people Hungarians made up 99.9% of the total population. In Hungary people can declare more than one ethnicity, so some people declared a minority one along with Hungarian.2011 Hungarian census, Békés county
/ref> In 2011 there were 4,531 (26.7%)

, 2,601 (15.3%)

and 708 (4.2%) Hungarian Reformed (

Calvinist Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Protestantism, Continenta ...

) in Szarvas. 4,087 people (24.1%) were

irreligious Irreligion is the absence or rejection of religious beliefs or practices. It encompasses a wide range of viewpoints drawn from various philosophical and intellectual perspectives, including atheism, agnosticism, religious skepticism, rationa ...

and 200 (1.2%)

Atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

, while 4,601 people (27.1%) did not declare their religion.

Sights

* Szarvas Botanical Garden (Szarvasi Arborétum) * Bolza Castle (Bolza-kastély) * Dry Mill (Szárazmalom) * Sámuel Tessedik Muzeum (Tessedik Sámuel Múzeum) * Szarvas Spa (Szarvasi Gyógyfürdő) * Csáky Castle (Csáky-kastély) * Mitrovszky Castle (Mitrovszky-kastély) * György Ruzicskay Art House (Ruzicskay György Alkotóház) * Lutheran Old Church (Evangélikus ótemplom) * New Lutheran Church (Evangélikus újtemplom) * Slovak Country House (Szlovák tájház)

Notable people

* Roland Lipcsei (1984), Hungarian football player * Éva Novodomszky (1974), Hungarian journalist and presenter * Endre Bajcsy-Zsilinszky (1886-1944), Hungarian politician * Jon Urbanchek (János Urbancsok) (1936-2024), Hungarian American swimming coach

Sport

* Szarvasi FC, association football club

Twin towns – sister cities

Szarvas is twinned with: * Baraolt, Romania * Bucine, Italy * Keuruu, Finland * Malacky, Slovakia *

Poprad Poprad (; ; ) is a city in northern Slovakia at the foot of the High Tatras, High Tatra Mountains, famous for its picturesque historic centre and as a holiday resort. The largest town of the Spiš region and the largest of all towns in the vic ...

, Slovakia *

Șimleu Silvaniei Șimleu Silvaniei (; , ) is a town in Sălaj County, Crișana, Romania with a population of 13,948 people (2021 census). It is located near the ancient Dacian fortress Dacidava. Three villages are administered by the town: Bic (''Bükk''), Cehei ...

, Romania * Vlăhița, Romania

References

External links

* in Hungarian and English
Aerial photographs of Szarvas
{{Authority control Populated places in Békés County Slovak communities in Hungary