article

Dunaújváros (1951–1961 Sztálinváros) is a city in Central Hungary, along the Danube (Hungarian name: Duna) river. It is in the county of Fejér.

History

Dunaújváros is one of the newest cities of the country. It was built in the 1950s during the industrialization of the country under Socialist rule, as a new city next to an already existing village, Dunapentele.

Dunapentele

The area has been inhabited since ancient times. When Western Hungary was a Roman province under the name Pannonia, a military camp and a town called Intercisa stood in this place, at the border of the province. The Hungarians conquered the area in the early 10th century. The village Pentele, named after the mediaeval Greek saint, Pantaleon, was founded shortly after.

Between 1541 and 1688 the village was under Ottoman rule, and during the 15-year war it was completely destroyed. During the freedom fight led by Prince Francis II Rákóczi the place was deserted again. In the 18th century the village began to prosper. In 1830 the village got te right to hold two market days every week. In 1831 there was a cholera epidemic and the peasants revolted. In 1833 Pentele was granted town status (oppidum) by Ferdinand V. The citizens took part in the freedom fight in 1848-49.

Dunaújváros

After World War II a major industrialization wave took over the country. The new, communist government developed several villages into large industrial cities and strengthened the industrial role of existing cities. In late 1949 the decision of building a large metal factory was born. Originally they wanted to build it close to Mohács, but the Hungarian-Yugoslavian relations worsened, and a new site was chosen, farther away from the Yugoslav border. The city was designed in 1950 and originally was planned to have 25.000 residents.

The construction of the city began on May 2, 1950 near Dunapentele. Within one year more than 1000 housing units were built and the factory complex was under construction. The city took the name of Stalin officially on April 4, 1952; its name was Sztálinváros, "Stalin City" as a parallel to Stalingrad in the USSR.

Stalin's death brought dramatic changes. The country was heading towards an economical crisis and it was blamed on the fact that lots of money was spent on industrialization, especially on Sztálinváros. The construction of the city and the factory was suddenly slowed down. Nevertheless the factory was built by 1954. The city had a population of 27.772 at this time; 85% of them lived in nice, comfortable flats, while about 4200 people still lived in uncomfortable barracks which originally provided "homes" for the construction workers.

In the middle of the 1950s mass transport was organized, the buses carried 24.000 passengers per day. During the 1950s many cultural and sports facilities were also built. The Endre Ságvári Primary School was the largest school in Central Europe in the 1960s.

In 1956 the construction was hindered by several things; there was an earthquake and a flood, and in October 23 the revolution started. During the revolution the city used its historical name Dunapentele again. The Rákóczi radio station, which was created by the revolutionaries, was broadcasting from Dunapentele (in fact from a bus that was constantly moving around in the city so that it couldn't be located.) Even though the citizens of Dunapentele tried to defend their city, the Soviet army occupied the city on November 7. The city fell under martial law, Russian tanks were standing everywhere.

After the revolution the city began to develop again. It was still the "trademark city" of socialism in Hungary, and was constantly shown to foreign visitors. Among the visitors were Yuri Gagarin and the Indonesian president Sukarno. The city also provided a scenery to popular movies.

In 1960 the ten-year-old city already had 31.000 residents to celebrate the anniversary.

On November 26, 1961 the city's name was changed to Dunaújváros (Duna|új|város meaning Danube-new-city; "new city on the Danube". See also Tiszaújváros) as a consequence of Stalin's death (1953) and the Hungarian Revolution (1956).

The Dunaferr factory complex is still one of the most important heavy industrial factories of the country.

Nowadays "New Danube City" calls the attention by its new infrastructure (New Danube bridge, direct highway link between Budapest and Dunaújváros) and the new South Korean Hankook factory, europe's biggest tyre factory of Hankook. This and other projects make Dunaújváros to a new hungarian boomtown.

See also

There are several big high street international shops now grown in last 10 years and this includes a large Tesco store.

External links

Socialist planned cities | Cities, towns and villages in Hungary | Cities, towns and villages in Fejér county | Cities named for Christian saints | 1950s establishments

Dunaújváros | Dunaújváros | Dunaújváros | Dunaújváros | Dunaújváros | Dunaújváros | Dunaújváros | Dunaújváros | Dunaújváros | 多瑙新城

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Dunaújváros".

Home Page • arts • business • computers • games • health • hospitals • home • kids & teens • news • physicians • recreation• reference • regional • science • shopping • society • sports • world