The Tiszai Railway Station, operated by

Hungarian State Railways The Hungarian State Railways (, , formally MÁV Magyar Államvasutak Zártkörűen Működő Részvénytársaság (MÁV Zrt.). The full official name of the company is MÁV-csoport () now commonly known as MÁV) is the Hungary, Hungarian natio ...

, is the larger of two railway stations of the city of

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, ...

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 ...

. Despite its name, the station is not close to the river

Tisza The Tisza, Tysa or Tisa (see below) is one of the major rivers of Central and Eastern Europe. It was once called "the most Hungarian river" because it used to flow entirely within the Kingdom of Hungary. Today, it crosses several national bo ...

; it was named after the company that built it.

History

Miskolc's need for connection with other cities by railway lines arose in the 1830s. Plans were made to expand the

Szolnok Szolnok (; also known by #Name and etymology, alternative names) is the county seat of Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county in central Hungary. A city with county rights, it is located on the banks of the Tisza river, in the heart of the Great Hungarian ...

–

Debrecen Debrecen ( ; ; ; ) is Hungary's cities of Hungary, second-largest city, after Budapest, the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain Regions of Hungary, region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar County. A city with county rights, it was the large ...

railway line towards

Nyíregyháza Nyíregyháza (, ) is a city with county rights in northeastern Hungary and the county capital of Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg. With a population of 118,001, it is the seventh-largest city in Hungary and the second largest in the Northern Great ...

and Miskolc, but due to the political situations of the time – there was a revolution against

Habsburg The House of Habsburg (; ), also known as the House of Austria, was one of the most powerful dynasties in the history of Europe and Western civilization. They were best known for their inbreeding and for ruling vast realms throughout Europe d ...

rule in 1848–49 – construction was delayed until 1857. Disagreements between the railway constructing company and the local government of the city hindered work. The local government wanted the station to be built at the end of Széchenyi Street, the main street of Miskolc, approximately where the

Szinvapark Szinvapark is one of the two largest shopping malls of Miskolc, Hungary. It is situated in the city centre, not far from its main rival, the Miskolc Plaza. The three-storey shopping centre opened on September 1, 2000 and is visited by 20,000 cu ...

shopping mall stands today, and said the area that the constructing company appointed (and where the station was eventually built) was too far from the city – at that time it was indeed about 2,5 kilometres away and the cost of transporting goods from the city to the station was too high for local merchants. Because of the disagreement the local government didn't support the building of the railway lines, and on May 24, 1859, the newly built station was opened without any opening ceremony. The station was simply called "Miskolc Railway Station" then; it got its current name in 1959. In 1860 Miskolc was connected by railway to

Košice Košice is the largest city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary. With a population of approximately 230,000, Košice is the second-largest cit ...

(then called Kassa, it was the other leading city of Northern Hungary and in many ways a rival of Miskolc), in 1870 the Miskolc- Pest line was ready, and in 1871 the Gömör line was built. On June 2, 1944, the

US Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

bombed the station as a part of Operation Frantic Joe. Many bombs fell on the city centre instead, claiming 206 lives (420 were wounded).

The building

The station building that stands today was designed by

Ferenc Pfaff Ferenc Pfaff (born Franz Pfaff; 19 November 1851 – 21 August 1913) was a Hungarian chief architect of the MÁV and professor at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. Early life and education Pfaff was born on 19 November 1851 in ...

and was built in 1901 in

eclectic style Eclecticism is a kind of mixed style in the fine arts: "the borrowing of a variety of styles from different sources and combining them" . Significantly, Eclecticism hardly ever constituted a specific style in art: it is characterized by the fact t ...

. It is a listed historic building and was restored recently, in 1999. It was modernized in 2003. During the construction of the building important archaeological findings were made, indicating a

Celt The Celts ( , see Names of the Celts#Pronunciation, pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples ( ) were a collection of Indo-European languages, Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient Indo-European people, reached the apoge ...

ic presence in the area.

Kandó Kálmán square

The square where the station stands is one of the most important traffic hubs of Miskolc. Both of the Miskolc tram lines and several bus lines (1, 1A, 101, 17, 21, 23, 31) of MVK ZRt. have their terminus here. The square is named in honor of

Kálmán Kandó Kálmán Kandó de Egerfarmos et Sztregova (''egerfarmosi és sztregovai Kandó Kálmán''; July 10, 1869 – January 13, 1931) was a Hungary, Hungarian engineer, the inventor of phase converter and a pioneer in the development of AC electric rai ...

(1869–1931), a Hungarian engineer who developed components for

electric locomotive An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a Battery (electricity), battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime mover (locomotive), ...

Sources

* Fejezetek Miskolc történetéből. ed.: Bekes Dezső, Veres László. Miskolc, 1984. pp. 93–94 * Dobrossy István: Miskolc írásban és képekben. vol. I. Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén Megyei Levéltár, Miskolc, 2006. pp. 79–81

External links

Tiszai Railway Station on HelloMiskolc.hu

A picture from 1918
{{coord, 48, 05, 56, N, 20, 48, 35, E, region:HU_type:railwaystation, display=title Railway stations in Hungary opened in 1901 Ferenc Pfaff railway stations Railway stations in Miskolc Railway stations in Hungary opened in 1859