page_title: Eger
section_title: Names and etymology
hierarchical_section_title: Eger / Names and etymology
caption_attribution_description: Eger (Agria) G Hoefnagel metszetén, a XVI. század végén
context_page_description: Eger is the county seat of Heves, and the second largest city in Northern Hungary. Eger is best known for its castle, thermal baths, baroque buildings, the northernmost Ottoman minaret, dishes and red wines. Its population according to the census of 2011 makes it the 19th largest centre of population in Hungary. The town is located on the Eger Stream, on the hills of the Bükk Mountains.
context_section_description: The origin of its name is still unknown. One suggestion is that the place was named after the alder (égerfa in Hungarian) which grew so abundantly along the banks of the Eger Stream. This explanation seems to be correct because the name of the town reflects its ancient natural environment, and also one of its most typical plants, the alder, large areas of which could be found everywhere on the marshy banks of the Stream although they have since disappeared. The German name of the town: Erlau, from Erlen-au ('elder grove'), also speaks in favour of this supposition. And there is another theory which says that Eger's name comes from the Latin word: ager ('field'). This theory comes from more recent researchers who think that during the 11th and 12th centuries settlers with a Walloon origin (latins in Hungarian) moved to this territory. 
  The basin of Eger and the hilly region around it have always been very suitable for human settlements, and there are many archaeological findings from the early ages of history, which support this fact.
  The other names of the town are in Latin Agria, in Serbian and Croatian Jegar / Јегар or Jegra / Јегра, in Czech and Slovene Jager, in Slovak Jáger, in Polish Jagier, and in Turkish Eğri.
caption: Eger in Georg Braun and Frans Hogenberg's Civitates orbis terrarum (1617)
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