Tarcal is a village on the eastern edge of Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

, northern

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 ...

, in the famous

Tokaj-Hegyalja Tokaj wine region ( ) or Tokaj-Hegyalja wine region (short ''Tokaj-Hegyalja'' or ''Hegyalja'') is a historical wine region located in northeastern Hungary and southeastern Slovakia. It is also one of the seven larger wine regions of Hungary ...

wine district, from

Miskolc Miskolc ( , ; ; Czech language, Czech and ; ; ; ) is a city in northeastern Hungary, known for its heavy industry. With a population of 161,265 as of 1 January 2014, Miskolc is the List of cities and towns in Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, ...

Geography

Tarcal is located at , at the western foot of the 516 m high Nagy Hill at

Tokaj Tokaj () is a historical town in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county, Northern Hungary, 54 kilometers from county capital Miskolc. It is the centre of the Tokaj-Hegyalja wine district where Tokaji wine is produced. History The wine-growing area ...

at the southernmost foothills of the Eperjes-Tokaj mountain range.. Tarcal is probably the best grape-growing locale of the world famous Tokaj-Hegyalja wine district. All the traditional Tokaji grape varieties (

Furmint Furmint (also known as Mainak) is a white Hungarian wine grape variety that is most noted widely grown in the Tokaj-Hegyalja wine region where it is used to produce single-varietal dry wines as well as being the principal grape in the better ...

Hárslevelű Hárslevelű (in Hungarian), also called ''Lipovina'' (in Slovak), ''Frunza de tei'' (in Romanian), ''Lindenblättriger'' (in German) and ''Feuille de Tilleul'' (in French) is a grape variety from the Pontian Balcanica branch of ''Vitis vin ...

, Sárga Muskotály (Yellow

muscat Muscat (, ) is the capital and most populous city in Oman. It is the seat of the Governorate of Muscat. According to the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), the population of the Muscat Governorate in 2022 was 1.72 million. ...

) grown here dry well on the vine, so they are suitable for excellent vintage wines, special quality Szamorodni wines, and 3-to-6

Puttonyos Puttonyos is a unit for the level of sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with th ...

Tokaji aszú wines. These wines are seasoned in

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

wood casks in cellars covered with choice mould (racodium cellare, a noble cellar mould).

History

The estate was presented to Captain Turzul by

Árpád Árpád (; 845 – 907) was the head of the confederation of the Magyar tribes at the turn of the 9th and 10th centuries. He might have been either the sacred ruler or '' kende'' of the Hungarians, or their military leader or '' g ...

at the time of the Conquest. In 1941 the population of Tarcal was 4004. During deportations to the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

in 1945 the local priest János Szerednyei voluntarily agreed to join a group of Tarcal inhabitants rounded up for deportations. He was sent to a labour camp in Vorosilovka, a part of the

gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...

. Szerednyei died in a coal mine accident in 1948. In 2015 an 8.5-meter statue of Jezus was displayed on a hill above the village. The sculptor was Sándor Szabó.

Jewish community

The Jewish population in Tarcal was 299 in 1941. Most of the Tarcal Jews were murdered in the

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

in 1944. In 1946 only 30 Jews lived in Tarcal. Among the famous rabbis of Tarcal were: * Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac Taub, the first

Hasidic Hasidism () or Hasidic Judaism is a religious movement within Judaism that arose in the 18th century as a spiritual revival movement in contemporary Western Ukraine before spreading rapidly throughout Eastern Europe. Today, most of those aff ...

Rebbe A Rebbe () or Admor () is the spiritual leader in the Hasidic movement, and the personalities of its dynasties.Heilman, Samuel"The Rebbe and the Resurgence of Orthodox Judaism."''Religion and Spirituality (Audio)''. UCTV, 20 Oct 2011. web. ...

in Hungary. He later relocated to

Nagykálló Nagykálló () is a small town in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county, in the Northern Great Plain region of eastern Hungary. Before World War II it belonged to Szabolcs (county), Szabolcs county. Location from county seat Nyíregyháza. History Nag ...

and remains famous as the Kaliv Rebbe. * Rabbi Yechezkel Paneth (1813–1822), author of ''Mare Yeheskel'' (Marmaros, 1875). * Rabbi Chayim Yosef Gottlieb (born Tarcal, 1790). In 1823 he was appointed dayan and teacher in Tarcal. * Rabbi Yaakov Shapira (1876–1906), a famous scholar, often mentioned in the halachic responsa of the famous rabbis of Hungary. * Rabbi Yehoshua Heshil Rosner (1906–1944). He was the son-in-law of Rabbi Yaakov Shapira. Rabbi Rosner was murdered in the Holocaust in 1944.

Sights of Tarcal

The architectural sights of the village are mostly connected to the

Rákóczi The House of Rákóczi (older spelling Rákóczy) was a Hungarian nobility, Hungarian noble family in the Kingdom of Hungary between the 13th century and 18th century. Their name is also spelled ''Rákoci'' (in Slovakia), ''Rakoczi'' and ''Rako ...

family. The mansions called King court, Rákóczi tavern and Sebeö mansion got their present form at the end of the 18th century. 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 ...

church is from 1615. Its foundations, crypt and the bottom part of the tower are of medieval origin. The

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 ...

church, where a memorial tablet commemorates the Reformed Confession, which was created here by the Tarcal Council in 1564, and the oval planned Terézia chapel were built between 1770 and 1790. The renovated synagogue was built around 1800.https://cja.huji.ac.il/browser.php?mode=alone&id=285419 Date of synagogue. Retrieved 31. October 2020. Another interesting sight of Tarcal may be the Andrássy Manor, which was built in baroque style in the 16th century. Under the mansion, owned by the

Andrássy Small arms of the Andrássy family The House of Andrássy is the name of a Hungarian noble family of very ancient lineage that was prominent in Hungarian history. The full family name is ''Andrássy de Csíkszentkirály et Krasznahorka''. Csí ...

family for several decades, there is a hidden cellar mainly used for producing and storing wine.

Images

Notes

References

Street map
{{authority control Populated places in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County