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History that lives with us

The past obligates

The area was known to be inhabited back in the 5-4 mil- population, and settled Slovakians, Germans, and Hungar-

lennia BC; many different tribes lived in this area: Scyth- ians in an organized manner within the county.
ians, Celts, Gepids, Sarmatians and Avars, and, aft er the On 23rd July, 1715, the forming and offi cial-electing Gen-
conquest of Hungary, it was the property of the Vata clan. eral Assembly was convened in Békés, and Békés County
Békés County was established in the 11th century, and was re-established. In parallel, the re-population of the towns
Békés became its seat. It was first mentioned in 1213, and and villages of the county was started. In 1715, there were

its first count (ispán) was Damján. residents only in nine towns and villages in the county,

By the 13th century, the relatively dense sett lement struc- about two or three thousand people. According to data of
ture, consisting of hundreds of villages and the develop- the census, this number reached 70,000 people in 1780. In
ment of nearly two centuries, were almost completely de- the 18th century, the transformation of the wild, natural
stroyed in 1241 during the Mongol invasion, when whole environment to cultural landscape began, and during the
areas were depopulated. Napoleonic wars, the county was already the dispensary
The fortress of Gyula was built at the beginning of the of the country. The general assembly had no established

15th century, and Gyula was awarded the title of county venue until the mid of the 18th century. It was held mostly
seat during the last third of the century. The fortress was in Békés, in Füzesgyarmat, in Szeghalom, or occasionally in

seized by the Turks in 1566. The one and a half centuries Vésztő, in Szarvas, in Vári, in Körösladány, or in Csaba. From

of Turkish conquest was even more devastating than the 1731, the meetings were usually held in Gyula.

Mongol invasion, and the population disappeared from The modern area of Békés County was created by the re-
almost the whole of the area. organization in 1950 when a new county seat, Békéscsaba,
At the beginning of the 18th century, following the expul- was appointed, which serves as the region’s industrial and
sion of the Turks and the Rákóczi War of Independence, commercial centre, as well as its railway junction.

the spontaneous return and resettlement of the population
began. János György Harruckern initiated large-scale re-
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