Békésszentandrás
Békésszentandrás is a village in Békés county, in the Southern Great Plain region of south-east Hungary. Geography Békésszentandrás, the western gate of Békés county, lies along the left bank of the Hármas-Körös River. The territory of the village is divided by the M44 road. The village is situated 150 km from Budapest, the capital city, and 50 km away from the town of Békéscsaba. It covers an area of 77.45 km2 and has a population of 3608 people (2015). The area has many prehistoric tumuli, known locally as kunhalom ('Cumanian Barrow'). The largest is Gödény-halom with a height of over 12 metres. History After the Hungarian conquest nearly seventy settlements were founded in the region of the Körös rivers. Archaeological research indicates there were a number of smaller settlements in this region which later were depopulated during the Mongol invasion. The first written reference about Békésszentandrás – as we now know is from 1297. The name of the village was mentioned for the first time in a controversial issue in 1329. Its autonomy was recognised on 18 April 1330 and became the property of the Úzvásári family under the name of Zenthandreas. Almost a hundred years later the settlement became the Crown's property again. Around 1436 King Sigismund donated it to his Knight János Hunyadi. The construction and flourishing of the Szentandrási estate began in that period. Around 1460 the estate received market town rights. After the death of János Hunyadi, his wife Erzsébet Szilágyi managed the estate. She was followed by János Corvin and András Dánfy. Under the leadership of the Dánfy family the estate fell into pieces, lost its integrated management and market town rights. The four parts of the village were shared by Miklós Nagyfalusi Toldy, Anna Dánfy, the Paksy and Patócsi family. The number of people living in Szentandrás under the Turkish rule often changed. Many of them left the settlement during the fighting at Gyula and just slowly drifted back to their village. Due to the high tax burden many people fled to the free counties. In 1596 Tatars destroyed the village, after that the territory was fallow for a long time. In the mid-1600s the area became populated again under the jurisdiction of György Rákóczi who was the Prince of Transylvania. In the 1690s it became deserted once again because of liberation wars and a plague outbreak. In the early 1700s a magistrate, György Száraz received the territory for 32,000 Forints. His wife, Katalin Doróczi was a descendant of the Paksy family. The first settlers arrived in 1719 from Kaba, Bihar county and later others came after them. Among them were a number of resettled people. György Száraz leased the estate to the county treasurer István Tolna, who was very cruel to the residents. They rebelled and this sparked the biggest rebellion of the century on 27 April 1735. Its leaders were Péró Szegedinácz, and the judge of Szentandrás, Mihály Vértessi. In the 1740s, the population of the village continued to grow after new