Szekszárd (, formerly also ''Szegzárd''; ; or ; ) is a small city in southern

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 ...

and the capital of

Tolna County Tolna (, ; ) is an administrative county (Comitatus (Kingdom of Hungary), comitatus or vármegye) in present-day Hungary as it was in the former Kingdom of Hungary. It lies in central Hungary, on the west bank of the river Danube. It shares borde ...

. By population, Szekszárd is the smallest county capital in Hungary; by area, it is the second-smallest (after Tatabánya).

Location

Szekszárd lies at the meeting point of the Transdanubian Hills and 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 ...

, at the mouth of Sió into the flood plain of

Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

Etymology

The Etymological Dictionary of Geographical Names, somewhat differently from the above, derives the name of the locality from the old Hungarian colour name szegszár (sötétsárga, brownish yellow), which could have become a personal name with the diminutive -d and thus could have been a predecessor of the town name.

History

Szekszárd was first mentioned in 1015. The

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

monastery of the town was founded by King Béla I in 1061. During the reign of King Matthias, Szekszárd was the estate of Bishop John, who was involved in a conspiracy against the king. Because of this, King Matthias ordered the castle of Szekszárd to be demolished. In 1485, Szekszárd was already a significant town, holding five market days a year, but during the Turkish ascendancy of Hungary, the town became deserted and the monastery was destroyed. By the 18th century, Szekszárd was again a significant town, it became a county seat (of Tolna), and got a coat of arms. The town was destroyed by a fire in 1794, but it could not stop the town's development. Most of the important buildings—including the

town hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...

, the County Hall and several churches—were built during the 19th century. By this time, Szekszárd already had 14,000 residents.

Mihály Babits Mihály Babits (; 26 November 1883 – 4 August 1941) was a Hungarian poet, writer, essayist, and translator. His poems are well known for their intense religious themes. His novels such as “The Children of Death” (1927) explore psychol ...

, an important Hungarian

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

was born in Szekszárd in 1883. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Szekszárd was captured by Soviet troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front on 30 November 1944 as part of the Budapest Offensive. In 1994, Szekszárd was granted the rank of city with county rights, in accordance with a new law stating that all county seats are cities with county rights. (Previously only cities with a population over 50,000 were granted county rights, and Szekszárd was one of only two county seats that had a smaller population than 50,000; the other was Salgótarján).

Transportation

Szekszárd lies on a

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

line Rétszilas -

Bátaszék Bátaszék (, ) is a town in Tolna County, Hungary. The majority residents are Hungarians, with a significant minority of Germans. "The oldest tree of Bátaszék" won the title of European Tree of the Year 2016. The Roman Catholic writer Mikló ...

and on a junction of main roads No. 6, 56, 63 and 65. Motorways M6 and M9 cross each other near the city. There also are local bus lines for city transportation operated by Volánbusz.

Main sights

* Old county hall ( neo-Classical style) * Augusz manor (

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt (22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic music, Romantic period. With a diverse List of compositions by Franz Liszt, body of work spanning more than six ...

was a guest here) * Deutsche Bühne Ungarn * Birthplace of Mihály Babits, Museums * Birthplace of Valéria Dienes * Ruins of Benedictine monastery * János Garay Square and statue

Twin towns – sister cities

Szekszárd is twinned with: *

Bečej Bečej (, ; , ) is a town and municipality located in the South Bačka District of the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. The town has a population of 19,492, while the municipality has 30,681 inhabitants. History Bečej was mentioned f ...

, Serbia (1975) * Bezons, France (1967) * Bietigheim-Bissingen, Germany (1989) * Făget, Romania (1998) * Jajce, Bosnia and Herzegovina (2016) *

Lugoj Lugoj (; ; ; ; ; ) is a list of cities and towns in Romania, city in Timiș County, Romania. The Timiș, Timiș River divides the city into two halves: the "Romanian Lugoj" that spreads on the right bank, and the "German Lugoj" on the left bank. Th ...

, Romania (1993) *

Province of Ravenna The province of Ravenna (; ) is a province in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Ravenna. As of 2015, it has a population of 391,997 inhabitants over an area of , giving it a population density of 210.81 inhabitants pe ...

, Italy (1996) *

Tornio Tornio (; ; ; ) is a city and municipalities of Finland, municipality in Lapland, Finland. The city forms a cross-border Twin cities, twin city together with Haparanda on the Swedish side. The municipality covers an area of , of which is wat ...

, Finland (1986) * Waregem, Belgium (1993)

Notable people

* Károly Escher, photographer *

, poet * János Garay, poet * Attila Fiola, footballer * János Hahn, footballer * Ferenc Ficza, racing driver

Sport

The women's basketball team Atomerőmű Szekszárd play in the Nemzeti Bajnokság is the premier tier of Hungarian basketball. Szekszárdi UFC play in the

Nemzeti Bajnokság III Nemzeti Bajnokság III (''NB III'', ''National Championship III'') is the third tier of Football in Hungary, Hungarian football (from the autumn of 1997 till the spring of 2005, NB III was the fourth tier, the third was NB II). The tier contains ...

, the third tier of Hungarian football.

References

External links

* in Hungarian, English and German
Aerial photography: Szekszárd
{{DEFAULTSORT:Szekszard County seats in Hungary Cities with county rights of Hungary Populated places in Tolna County Wine regions of Hungary