Ferenc Szalay
Who was the chair of Szolnok from Oct 2006 to Oct 2007?
Szolnok Szolnok ( ) is the county seat of Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county in central Hungary . Its location on the banks of the Tisza river , at the heart of the Great Hungarian Plain , has made it an important cultural and economic crossroads for centuries . Name and etymology . Szolnok was named for the first steward of the city , Szaunik or Zounok . The town was first officially mentioned under the name Zounok in 1075 . In the following centuries , it was recorded as Zounok , Saunic , Zounuc , and Zawnuch . The variety of spellings likely comes from phonetic discrepancies occurring when Hungarian sounds - originally written in runic Old Hungarian script - were recorded using the Latin alphabet . Another possibility revolves around speculation that the name Szaunik was not a personal name after all , but rather a title relating to the significant salt trade ( salt , ) in the area . In most other languages , the citys Hungarian name is used without derivation ( for example , ) . The city has its own name in a few languages ( for example , , ) , deriving from these languages historical relationship to the city . Location and physical geography . Szolnok is located in the heart of the Great Hungarian Plain , at the confluence of the Tisza and Zagyva rivers . It lies about east-southeast from Budapest . The climate of the area is continental , with hot summers following relatively mild winters . The region is one of the sunniest in Europe ; the average precipitation is about annually . Climate . Szolnok has a humid continental climate ( Dfb ) . History . Earliest settlement . The area was first settled in the Paleolithic era . The first known inhabitants lived in temporary tent-like structures made from reeds , or in more permanent dwellings made of hides draped over wooden poles . They were hunters of mammoth , reindeer , deer , and boar . Archeologists have also found stone tools from this era , some made of flint . Fishing equipment such as hooks and weights from nets , dating from the Neolithic era , shows the increasing importance of fishing in the peoples lives . These were usually made from clay , as were ritual statues of gods , bulls , and stylized women . In Szandaszőlős , a suburb of Szolnok , a permanent Neolithic era settlement was discovered . By the Mesolithic era , the inhabitants of the area had settled into permanent villages , where they practiced agriculture and animal husbandry . Reconstructions of these settlements can be seen in Szolnoks Damjanich János Museum . The houses of this era were largely made of wood . They utilized carts for transporting goods and large earthenware granaries for storing grain . In the Bronze Age , new people arrived in the Carpathian Basin . In Tószeg , a neighbor of Szolnok , a large settlement was established , with houses built with thick adobe walls . The villagers kept horses , pigs , and sheep , as well as collecting clams from the river . Certain artifacts have been found , such as bronze tools , swords , and shells , which suggest long-distance trade . The Romans were not able to establish permanent settlements on the Alföld ( modern-day eastern Hungary ) , so in the time before the arrival of the Hungarians in 896 , the area was populated by Scythians , Celts , and Sarmatians . A number of artifacts have been found from the Scythian era in Szolnok and in the area surrounding it . During the building of the Zagyva River dikes , remnants of a Scythian settlement were found , including iron pots and other pottery . The Celts followed the Scythians . Artifacts from the Celtic era include mostly weapons , including iron swords and shields , as well as saddlery and other iron components . Subsequently , the Sarmatians , who originated in Iran , settled in the surrounding area . The Sarmatian people were in contact with the Roman Empire , sometimes by war and sometimes by trade . Roman money , weapons , jewelry and pottery are often found ; when Szolnoks military airport was enlarged in 1952 , over two hundred Gepid and Sarmatian graves were uncovered , which contained rich treasures : gold-plated and decorated fibulas , iron weapons , bone combs , belt buckles , and pots . After the Sarmatians , Germanic-speaking peoples took possession of the area . In Ó-Szanda , a district of Szolnok suburb Szandaszőlős , archeologists discovered a rich trove of artifacts left by the Gepids , who lived in the area in the 4th and 5th centuries . The Gepids were familiar with glass-making and wore heavy beads made from colored glass . After the Gepids , the area was populated by Avars . Like the Hungarian tribes who came later , the Avars were buried with their horses ; a number of these graves have been unearthed . The remains discovered from the time of their rule indicates that the Avars first appeared in the middle of the 6th century . The burial grounds found at Rákóczifalva , some from Szandaszőlős , show that a large permanent settlement once existed there . Middle Ages . Szolnok was first mentioned , under the name Zounok , in a letter from Géza I concerning the foundation of the monastery at Garamszentbenedek in 1075 . It was named for the first steward of the city , Szaunik or Zounok . In the following centuries it was recorded as Zounok , Saunic , Zounuc , and Zawnuch . The variety of spellings likely comes from phonetic discrepancies occurring when Hungarian sounds - originally written in runic Old Hungarian script - were recorded using the Latin alphabet . Under the rule of the Árpád Dynasty , Szolnok was a market town and the center of Szolnok County . When King István ordered a church built in every tenth village , one was built in Szolnok . The 11th century saw great improvements in the city due to the Tisza river ferry , customs house , and county business . There was great trade and commerce via both the Tisza and the overland roads that ran through Szolnok . Despite this , Szolnok remained a market town through the Middle Ages , without expanding to a city . The Szolnok Castle was , in these times , only an earthworks fort , although later a wooden wall was added . During the Mongol invasion of Hungary in 1241 the town was destroyed ; it was re-populated under King Béla IV but even by the end of the 14th century it was still considered a village . King Zsigmond of Luxemburg , in an effort to develop the town , freed Szolnok from certain taxes in 1422 , and from customs in 1429 . After this , the town slowly began to grow and prosper again . Szolnok in Ottoman Hungary . Due to Szolnoks geographical centrality , Szolnok Castle played an important role in the border castle system of 16th century Hungary . After the Ottoman armies captured Temesvár and occupied the Danube-Tisza-Maros River area , only two forces of any significance stood between them and the rest of Hungary : Szolnok , and Eger to the north . Beginning in June 1552 , Hungarian , Transylvanian , and Viennese agents all began reporting that the Ottoman army was on the move out of Temesvár towards Szolnok and Eger . The task of capturing the two was given to Ali Pasha of Buda . After the fall of other minor fortifications on the Puszta , Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent ordered Pashas Ahmed , Ali , and Mohamed to lead their armies against the castles . It was in light of this Turkish danger that in 1550-51 Ferdinand I ordered the Szolnok earthworks to be improved with a new town wall ( partially planned by István Dobó ) , the castle to be fortified , and Lőrinc Nyáry put in command . Under his command were 1400 soldiers , mostly Spanish , German , Czech , with a small number of Hungarians . The castle was armed with 24 cannons , 3000 muskets , 800 weights of gunpowder , and was well-stocked with food and supplies . Further works began in summer of 1552 and progressed rapidly . In order to surround the castle , a new branch of the Zagyva river was dug . This new branch is the one that remains today , at the point where the Zagyva flows into the Tisza river . The original course of the Zagyva has today been filled in , but a small part of it remains as the lake in front of the Szolnok MÁV Hospital . On September 2 , 1552 , Pasha Ahmed Ali besieged the castle with his army of 40,000 . Although it was the German mercenaries who first entertained thoughts of escape , it was the Hungarian boatmen who deserted first . On the night of September 3 , the Hungarian and Spanish horsemen swam across the Tisza , then the boatmen returned for the foot soldiers . On the night of September 4 , the mercenaries deserted , leaving the castle to its fate . After they departed the front gate was left open until morning , leading to the easy overpowering and capture of Lőrinc Nyáry and the fifty remaining brave men . István Mekcsey , one of the defenders of the Siege of Eger , wrote the following to his sister four days before the Turkish advance forces reached Eger : I cant write more.. . but to say that every day now we feel we are awaiting a great punishment since the traitors gave up Szolnok . Ahmed and Mohamed left a garrison of 2,000 soldiers in Szolnok while they marched against Eger . The Ottoman occupation of Szolnok lasted from 1552 to 1685 . In 1553 , they established the sanjak of Szolnok , and in the following years built a mosque , baths , and a minaret ; during the course of later battles these were destroyed , mostly deliberately . Of the minaret the base remained , and this was made into a stylized fountain which remains today . In 1562 , they constructed the first permanent bridge spanning the Tisza . The remains of the so-called Szolnok Turkish-era Bridge ( ) again came to light in August 2003 after a summer of drought . The only Turkish codex made in Hungary was copied in Szolnok ; it describes the campaigns of Suleiman in Hungary . Pottery and tools from the Turkish era can be seen today in Szolnoks Damjanich János Museum . Post-Ottoman Szolnok . In 1685 , Szolnok was liberated from the Ottomans by the Habsburg armies under the control of Generals Heister and Mercy ; during the liberation both the city and the castle were significantly damaged . Due to Szolnok castles strategic importance , it was rebuilt by commander Antonio Caraffa . In 1697 , Imre Thököly burned down the castle . The events of the Rákóczi Uprising in 1703 and 1706 reached Szolnok and the city was again razed to the ground . In 1706 , Ferenc Deák , one of Rákóczis leaders , burned the Szolnok castle so that Imperial forces couldnt use it , so Imperial General Rabutin had the stones all taken away . In 1710 , forces loyal to Rákóczi took over the castle , but on October 10 , they abandoned it to the advancing army of Imperial General Jacob Joseph Cusani . After the Uprising , the castle finally fell to pieces and the stones were carted away . In the years after , the city of Szolnok fared little better than the castle ; it was hit by disaster after disaster , including a massive storm in 1739 which devastated the city . During the storm a fire broke out which , aided by the storm winds , grew and engulfed the majority of the town . The only buildings which were spared were those which were isolated from the town center . Szolnok started to prosper again in the second half of the 18th century . Control of the river Tisza and steamship traffic increased the towns importance . From 1847 Szolnok was connected to Pest by railway . Its citizens took part in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 in 1848-49 . In the Battle of Szolnok , the Austrians were defeated by the armies of General János Damjanich . After the Ausgleich , the population and importance of Szolnok grew . In 1876 , Szolnok became capital of the comitatus again . By 1879 , it already had 16,001 residents . 20th century . Szolnok saw action in the First World War in May 1919 when a long and bitter battle raged along the Tisza between the advancing Romanian army and the Hungarian Red Army . Romanian troops caused terrible damage to the area as the front stagnated here for 77 days . After the defeat of the Red Army in July 1919 in the Tiszántúl ( the regions east of Szolnok ) , the Romanians crossed the Tisza and occupied the city . The occupation lasted until February 25 , 1920 . The railroad bridge , which had been destroyed during the battle , was finally reconstructed in 1923 . In 1930 , the city had 38,764 inhabitants . Several higher level educational institutions existed , including boys and girls grammar schools , a scientific secondary school , trade schools for boys and girls both , lumber- and metal-works vocational school , and a midwifery training institute . The interwar period saw a surge in industry , including factories for weights , mirrors , furniture , vinegar spirits , rum , and liquor , ice , cotton wool , bricks , sugar ; smelting furnace and metalworks factory ; machinery factory and iron foundry ; two electrical distribution systems ; four lumber mills ; and four steam mills . In the interwar period , most of the damage done to the city had been successfully repaired . During World War II , Szolnok was bombed twelve times , mostly by American troops , which caused serious damage to the buildings and the population . In the so-called Frantic attack ( June 2 - September 19 , 1944 ) a wave of 600 fighter planes bombed Debrecen ; the right wing also bombed Nagyvárad ( now Oradea ) , Kolozsvár ( now Cluj Napoca ) , Szeged , and Balmazújváros , and the left wing Szolnok and Miskolc . Szolnok suffered great damaged under these attacks and many lives were lost . The train station of Szolnok was bombed several times , by both British and American fighters . During 1944 , it became the location of a labor camp and a concentration point for Hungarian Jews being deported to Mauthausen in Austria . It was critical to the success of the Hungarian Jews roundup and deportion . By the end of the war , the majority of the population had fled ; the Soviet troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front found only a couple thousand people when they entered the decimated city on 4 November 1944 , in the course of the Budapest Offensive . During the Socialist era , Szolnok began to recover with Soviet aid . Factories were built , and touristic importance grew when a thermal bath was opened . Szolnok was granted the rank of city with county rights on November 13 , 1990 . Demographics . In 2001 , the population of Szolnok consisted of 98% Hungarian , 1% Gypsy , and 1% people of other nationalities ( mainly German ) . Szolnoks population reached its highest level in 1989 with almost 82,000 people . Since then it has been slowly but steadily declining ; it is predicted to sink to 70,000 by the year 2020 . Main sights . - Bath - Beer Museum and Manufactory - Sörárium - Museum of Hungarian Aviation - Damjanich János Museum - The Synagogue - Tiszavirág Bridge Politics . The current mayor of Szolnok is Ferenc Szalay ( Fidesz-KDNP ) . The local Municipal Assembly , elected at the 2019 local government elections , is made up of 18 members ( 1 Mayor , 12 Individual constituencies MEPs and 5 Compensation List MEPs ) divided into this political parties and alliances : List of mayors . List of City Mayors from 1990 : Sport . - Szolnoki MÁV FC , football team - Szolnoki Légierő SK , defunct football team - Szolnoki Olaj KK , basketball team - Szolnoki Vízilabda SC , waterpolo team Festivals . - Goulash Festival - Tiszavirág Festival Notable people . Born in Szolnok . - Ferenc Anisits ( born 1938 ) engineer , founder of BMW Diesel Development Center - Rev Peter Bedekovics ( born 1989 ) Reformed minister , national chair of the Hungarian Scout Association - Csaba Horváth ( 1930–2004 ) chemical engineer and inventor of HPLC - Zoltán Jeney ( 1943–2019 ) composer - Gina Kanizsa ( born 1988 ) , jazz singer - Hedvig Karakas ( born 1990 ) Olympic Judoka - Katalin Karikó ( born 1955 ) biochemist , Senior Vice President at BioNTech - Ferenc Molnár ( born 1982 ) , Hungarian singer - Arpád Račko ( 1930–2015 ) Slovak sculptor - Gábor Szabó , architect - Gizella Tary ( 1884–1960 ) Olympic fencer Lived in Szolnok . - Bertalan Farkas ( born 1949 ) , cosmonaut - Martin Nedić ( 1810–1895 ) Croatian poet - Viktor Orbán ( born 1963 ) , prime minister - Gábor Szegő ( 1895–1985 ) , mathematician International relations . A public transport stop in the Estonian city of Tallinn is named for Szolnok . Twin towns – sister cities . Szolnok is twinned with : - Baia Mare , Romania ( 1990 ) - Bengbu , China - Bielsko-Biała , Poland ( 1995 ) - Eastwood , England , UK ( 2006 ) - Forlì , Italy ( 1998 ) - Jinzhong , China - Rakvere , Estonia ( 2008 ) - Reutlingen , Germany ( 1990 ) - Riihimäki , Finland ( 1969 ) - Sanmenxia , China ( 2008 ) - Shoham , Israel ( 2001 ) - Yuza , Japan ( 2004 ) References . - Notes External links . - Official site in Hungarian , English and German - Aerial photography of Szolnok - Museum of Hungarian Aviation - Transmitter station Szolnok