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The thousand years of Békés Town
Our town’s territory has been dwelled for thousands of years, archeologists excavated Bronze-age and even
earlier artifacts. But our history after all begins with the foundation of state, when Saint Stephen (Szent István)
our king established the county system. The town’s and county’s name have personal origins, probably they
carry the first land agent’s name, Békés. In the middle ages our settlement was the county seat and the deanery
centre. In 1403 Békés and its surroundings were imparted into the Maróthy family’s hands, who constructed a
mansion house in the-present-day Kastélyzug. The county seat in this period of time was transferred to Gyula.
In the 16th century Békés became protestant (at first Lutheran then Calvinistic). In 1552 a noted reformer, Szegedi
Kis István founded a still existing school in Békés. In 1566 Gyula- and with this Békés too- got under the
jurisdiction of Turks, and remained as well until 1695. The end of Turkish era also brought the devastation of
town. During the liberator wars, then the decades of the Rákóczi war of independence, Békés got desolated. The
resettlement took place in 1711. Along the 18th century Békés turned out to be a prosperous borough, thrived
in population, occupied territory and public buildings as well. The three churches derive from this era and the
so called Nagyház aa well. The vast majority of population was Calvinistic, but the believers of other religions
were also affiliated. Initially Békés and its surroundings were treasury possessions. Later the Harruckern
family got them in turn for their services, from them through succession these were vested in the Wenckheim
family. In the 18th century the town already had all of its five districts. The danger of flooding meant a constant
problem, therefore in the 1850s the government besides other rivers, regulated River Körös, too. In this way
the new River Kettős-Körös was formed, then outside the town within an artificial water-course. By the 20th
century the downtown section of River Fekete-Körös narrowed to a creek. The urban section of the old River
Fekete (black)-Körös and the city image forming River Fehér (white) -Körös are together known today as living
water channel. In the 19th century the homestead farming form emerged firmly determining the town itself:
thousands of homesteads surrounded Békés. The decades of Dualism (1867-1918) were determinative from the
aspect of townscape. At that time the town hall, the grammar school, the Dübögő, the tenement house (Bérház),
the post office, the synagogue just as several still standing family houses were constructed, however Békés at that
time lost its city status: in 1872 it was proclaimed to be a grand municipality. During World War II with its 30
thousand inhabitants Central-Europe’s biggest village was Békés. During the Dualism the protestant population
always elected oppositional, independence party representatives. Battles neither in the First, nor in the Second
World War affected Békés, but hundreds of soldiers and civilians- primarily Israelite religion- lost their lives in
these years. After 1944 several settlements came away from Békés, which signify the current Bélmegyer, Tarhos,
Kamut and Murony. In the decades of state socialism farmers’ co-operatives were organized, as well as some
degree of industrialization also took place in the settlement. In 1969 our settlement got grand municipality title
then in 1973 it got back its city status. In the 80s and 90s the town centre obtained a new townscape with its
multi-storey, modern buildings, but also after 1990 numerous developments were in progress in Békés.
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