Debrecen Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Debrecen (in Romanian "Debreţin", in Slovak "Debrecín", in Polish "Debreczyn") is the second largest city in Hungary after Budapest. Debrecen is the capital of Hajdú-Bihar county. Population (2001): 211,000.
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2 History 3 Education 4 Sights to see 5 External links |
It is located on the Great Hungarian Plain (Alföld) 143 miles (230 km) east of Budapest by rail. Hortobágy, a famous place of the Hungarian "Puszta" is situated nearby.
"Who in his sane mind would build a city in the middle of a plain with no hill and no water?" -- once people asked about Debrecen, yet the city has grown into a vibrant center of culture, arts and science.
The city is unfortunately quite off the center of the Hungarian traffic system (one railway and one highway – the number 4 – leads there), so it is time consuming to travel there from Western Hungary. The government has plans to build the #3 (Eastern) dual highway longer (or to build the #4 (South-Eastern) dual highway, which does not even exist) and reconnect the city into the fast flow of traffic and economy.
Before Hungarians occupied present-day Hungary, a number of different tribes lived in the area. The town came into existence by the merging of the small villages of the area, and was mentioned by the name "Debrezun" first in 1235. The name is possibly of Turkish origin.
In 1361 King Louis the Great grants the citizens of Debrecen the right to choose the town's judge and council. This opened new opportunities for the town. By the early 16th century Debrecen was an important market town. Between 1450 and 1507, it was a domain of the Hunyady family.
Being close to the border of the country and having no castle or city walls got Debrecen often into a difficult situation and the town was saved only by the diplomatic skills of her leaders. Sometimes the town was protected by the conquering Turkish empire, sometimes by the Catholic European rulers or by Prince Rákóczi, leader of the fight for Hungarian independence. This caused the citizens be open-minded and Debrecen embraced the Protestant reform quite early. This earned her the name "Calvinist Rome". This time all the inhabitants of the city were Hungarian protestants.
In 1693 Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor elevated Debrecen to free royal town status. In 1715, the Roman Catholic Church returned to Debrecen, and the town gave them a place to build a church, so the Piarist monks could build the St. Anna Cathedral. By this time the town was an important cultural, commercial and agricultural centre, and lots of future scholars and poets attended its Protestant College (a predecessor of today's University of Debrecen).
In 1849 Debrecen was the capital of Hungary for a short time when the Hungarian revolutionary government fled there from Pest-Buda (modern-day Budapest). In April 1849, the detronization of Habsburgs (neglected after the fall of the revolution) and the independence of Hungary was proclaimed here by Lajos Kossuth at the Great (Calvinist) Church ("Nagytemplom"). Debrecen also witnessed the fall of the war of independence; the battle in which the Russians, the allies of the Habsburgs defeated the Hungarian army, was close to the western part of the town.
After the war Debrecen slowly began to prosper again. In 1857 the railway line between Budapest and Debrecen was completed, and Debrecen soon became a railway junction. New schools, hospitals, churches, factories, mills were built, banks and insurance companies settled down in the city. The city began to care for its appearance too: with the new, higher buildings, parks and beautiful villas it left the old smalltown look behind and began to look like an urban city. In 1884 Debrecen became the first Hungarian city to have a steam tramway.
After World War I Hungary lost its southern parts to Romania, and Debrecen once again became close to the border of the state. Tourism provided a way for the city to begin to prosper again. Lots of buildings (among them an indoor swimming pool and Hungary's first stadium) were built in the central park, Nagyerdő ("Big Forest"), providing recreational facilities. The building of the university was completed. The Hortobágy, a large pasture owned by the city, became a tourist attraction.
During World War II Debrecen was almost completely destroyed, 70% of the buildings suffered damages, 50% of them completely perished. After 1944 the reconstruction began and Debrecen became the capital of Hungary for a short time once again. The citizens began to rebuild their city, trying to restore the pre-war status, but the new, Communist government of the state had other plans. The institutions and estates of the city were taken into public ownership. This forced change of the old system brought new losses to Debrecen (half of its area was annexed to nearby smalltowns, and the city also lost its rights over Hortobágy), however, the newly built block houses provided homes for those who lost their homes during the war.
Today's Debrecen is one of the five regional centres of Hungary.
There is a huge University at Debrecen, called Debreceni Egyetem (http://www.unideb.hu/)
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