Borsod County


Borsod was an administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary. The capital of the county was Miskolc. After World War II, the county was merged with the Hungarian parts of Abaúj-Torna and Zemplén counties to form Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county.

Etymology

The name comes from a personal name Bors with the -d suffix used to derive place names in old Hungarian language. The personal name Bors could derived from bors and/or derived from Turkish or from a Slavic personal name Boriš. The problem has not been sufficiently resolved yet. E.g. Lajos Kiss suggests the Turkish origin, whilst Slovak scholars have been suggesting the Slavic origin since the times of Ján Stanislav who accepted Moór's theory as a more reliable and pointed to several place names with similar etymology. Ján Steinhübel points to a Czech name Borša, from the same name derives also e.g. Boršov nad Vltavou.

Geography

Before World War I, Borsod county shared borders with the counties Gömör-Kishont, Abaúj-Torna, Zemplén, Szabolcs, Hajdú and Heves. The river Tisza formed the southeastern border, and the river Sajó flowed through the county. Its area was 3629 km² around 1910.

History

Borsod is one of the oldest counties of the Kingdom of Hungary. In the early history of the Kingdom of Hungary each county formed around a castle. The castle – which stood near modern-day Edelény – bore the name of its first steward, Bors, who lived during the reigns of either High Prince Géza or his son Stephen I.
The county's borders became permanent in the early 14th century, when the neighbouring Torna County was formed, and they remained basically unchanged for the next six hundred years. Judging from the place names, originally the majority of the population were ethnic Hungarians, but later other groups immigrated to the area too: Pechenegs and úz groups. This is also evident from place names like Szirmabesenyő and Ózd.
The parishes of the county belonged to the Diocese of Eger from the beginning. Several monasteries were founded in the region, in Százd, Boldva, Kács, Tapolca, Bélháromkút.
, built in the second half of the 13th century
The Battle of Mohi – marking the beginning of the Mongol invasion which had a disastrous effect on Hungary – took place in Borsod county, near the village of Muhi, on 11 April 1241. The Mongols defeated the army of King Béla IV. During the two-year invasion, 16 of the county's 69 villages were completely destroyed.
In 1248, when King Béla ordered stone castles to be built throughout the kingdom, several new castles were constructed in Borsod county too, many in places of former, destroyed motte castles. The monastery of Boldva was destroyed during a second Mongol invasion in 1285.
In the papal tithe registers from 1332–1335, the county is mentioned as having 91 parishes. The county had about 240 villages at that time. Before the battle of Mohács, which marks the beginning of the Ottoman occupation of Hungary the county had 13 castles, 13 market towns and 250 villages, owned by 235 different feudal lords including dioceses and monasteries. The steward of the county was the captain of the Castle of Diósgyőr.
In 1566, the Ottomans occupied the castles of Dédes and Diósgyőr, and after the Battle of Mezőkeresztes they occupied Miskolc too. These areas were under Ottoman control until 1687.
In the next century, an important historical event of Prince Rákóczi's freedom fight took place in the county: the Diet of Ónod, where Hungary was declared independent of Habsburg rule, was held here, next to the village of Ónod, on 18 June 1707.
In 1724, it was decided that the county hall of Borsod would be built in Miskolc, thus the town officially became the seat of the county. The building was constructed between 1825–1827.
There were some minor changes in the area of the county during the 19th century: between 1807 and 1812 the villages Szőlőske, Cegléd, Tihamér, Almagyar, Felnémet and Bekölce were annexed to the neighbouring Heves county, while Egerfarmos, Ivánka, Szőkepuszta and the mill of Kistálya were annexed from Heves to Borsod. In 1850 several other towns and villages of Borsod were annexed to neighbouring counties: Andornak, Kistálya and Felsőtárkány to Heves, Domaháza and Sikátor to Gömör and Kishont. Onga, formerly belonging to Abaúj county, and Külsőböcs, formerly of Zemplén county, became parts of Borsod. In 1907 Miskolc was granted the rank of city with municipal rights, becoming de jure independent from Borsod county.
In 1910, the county had 289,492 inhabitants. Of the 63 counties of Hungary it was the 39th largest by area, 23rd largest by population and 11th largest by population density. Between 1899 and 1913 many people left Hungary and emigrated to other countries; from Borsod 23,797 people emigrated, which, not counting the 7,313 who eventually came back, makes the county 18th in the list of Hungarian counties with the most emigrees.
In 1919, Borsod county had 177 villages.
After World War I and the Treaty of Trianon, Hungary lost many of its territories to neighbouring countries. The loss did not affect Borsod county, its borders remained unchanged, but of the surrounding counties Abaúj-Torna lost 48% of its area to the newly formed state of Czechoslovakia, Zemplén lost 72% and Gömör-Kishont lost 92.5%. In 1923, Borsod county was merged with the remaining parts of former Gömör-Kishont county to form "Borsod-Gömör-Kishont temporarily united county" with its capital at Miskolc.
On 2 November 1938, the First Vienna Award returned to Hungary some parts of Gömör and Kishont lost in 1920; Borsod and Gömör-Kishont became independent from each other again but the border between them slightly changed.
In 1941, the county had 382,324 inhabitants Nógrád-Hont County territories assigned from Szabolcs County to Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County. territories assigned from Borsod-Gömör County to Heves County. the city of Debrecen.
Today the area that was once Borsod county is the most urbanized and industrialized area of Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén, with 3/4 of the county's population living here. The county's three largest cities – Miskolc, Ózd and Kazincbarcika – can be found here. In colloquial speech Borsod county'' is often used to mean Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén as a whole.

Historical population

In 1900, the county had a population of 257,586 people and was composed of the following linguistic communities:
Total:
According to the census of 1900, the county was composed of the following religious communities:
Total:
* as Borsod-Gömör
** Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén

Subdivisions

In the early 20th century, the subdivisions of Borsod county were: