Miskolc

Miskolc with 200.000 inhabitants is the second largest city in Hungary. It is the seat of the County Borsod-Abauj-Zemplen and the Northern Region of Hungary. The industrial city lies at the foot of the Bükk mountains.

The today's large city is a long settlement along the stream Szinva. It had fused with some neighbouring settlement like Diosgyör, Tapolca, Lillafüred, and Felsözsolca. This town was the main centre of the Hungarian heavy industries with its steel mills and factories between 1950s and the end of 1980s. After the 1989 year, the new economic structure killed the heavy industries. The so called socialist town became the town of thousands of unemployed people. The challenge of the new century is making new place of work, using the great natural surrounding as tourist attraction and last but not least making the city to the cultural centre.

The history of the heavy industry of Miskolc

Bükk mountains had has an excellent source of raw material since ancient times. It has enormous beech forests (the name of Bükk mountains means beech) limestone mines, and not so far iron ore mines. They are rows of iron works. In the Middle Ages woodmen, lime-burners, charcoal makers lived in the forest, and little furnaces made iron. In the 18th century Henrik Fasola established the first furnace in Omassa (massa means furnace, Omassa means Old furnace), later in Ujmassa (New furnace) along the stream Garadna. Today in Ujmassa is a reconstructed furnace with a museum in the forest along the line of the narrow gauge train of Lillafüred. Later iron works became larger and larger, they had to more and more row material and water power so foundries moved closer to Miskolc. First in Felsöhamor, when the work built a dam (and there is the today's Hamori lake where you may boat) and sunk a well (and discovered a unique cave which kept more millions old fossils in its lime material, see later Anna Cave in Lillafüred) for more water. An old bureau building is the home of the Museum of Metallurgy, which shows the history of the ironworks in this region. Later the industry moves down to Diosgyör because in Felsohamor, in this narrow valley there was not enough places for factories. In the 20th century Diosgyör became the larger centre of iron works in Hungary. In the 1950s the new slogan was 'We will be the country of iron and steel' and the iron works of Diosgyör were larger the even before. At that time old houses were demolished and large modern housing estates were built for iron workers. These eleven storeys concrete buildings determine the landscape of the city. After the democratic transformation foundries closed or changed its products.

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