Kecskemét ( ) is a city with county rights in central Hungary. It is the eighth-largest city in the country, and the county seat of Bács-Kiskun.
Kecskemét lies halfway between the capital Budapest and the country's third-largest city, Szeged, from both of them and almost equal distance from the two big rivers of the country, the Danube and the Tisza. It is the northern of two centres of the Hungarian Southern Great Plain () region (with Bács-Kiskun, Békés and Csongrád counties). The southern centre is Szeged, the seat of Csongrád County.
Etymology The name of the city stems from the Hungarian word , meaning 'goat', and , meaning 'pass'.
Geography Kecskemét was established at the meeting point of a large sandy region and a sandy yellow soil. Its elevation is above sea level. The territory west of the city is covered by wind-blown sand and is characterised by the almost parallel northern-southern sand dunes and the plain between them. In the late 18th and the early 19th centuries, the pastures become depleted. Overgrazing by cattle had destroyed natural vegetation cover, and the movement of sand seriously endangered the town. The concentrated reforestation and planting of fruit and vines were carried out to restabilise the soil.
Kecskemét is in the centre of Kiskunság, one of Hungary's famous regions. The Kiskunság National Park was established in 1975 to preserve the many different regional species of plants and animals. It is a 'mosaic'-type national park and has units that are not connected.
Climate The weather in the Kecskemét region of Kiskunság is characteristically continental warm and dry and is sometimes extreme. The amount of sunlight makes allows the region to produce agricultural products such as wheat, apricots, red peppers, and tomatoes. The warmest month in Kecskemét is July, with an average temperature of ; the coldest is January, at .
Early spring and late autumn frosts are frequent on the Great Hungarian Plain. The possibility of frost usually ends only in mid-April. After the third week of October, the temperature is frequently below .
History
The first archaeological trace of a human in the area is about 5,000 years old. The Sarmatians invaded the area in the 1st Anno century BC; since then, the area has been continuously inhabited by a variety of cultures. János Hornyik, the first town historian, believed that the settlement known as Partiskum of the Sarmatian Jazygian was here. The consensus among historians is now that it is more likely that permanent settlement occurred only after the Hungarian conquest. In the early 13th century, there were seven villages in the area, each with a population of 200–300, which were formed near the village church, a typical rural pattern. They were all destroyed by the First Mongol invasion. Some of the villages revived at the time of colonisation by the Cumans.
As Kecskemét was at an important trading route, it grew as a customs-house and market-place; in 1368, it was identified in one of King Louis I of Hungary's charters as an oppidium (town). The town's active economic life and relatively dense population attracted more traders, craftsmen and residents, including Jews, who became an important part of the town.
During the Ottoman conquest, settlers from neighbouring villages sought shelter in Kecskemét, which was protected by defensive palisades. They also were escaping the oppression of the spahi landlords. In addition to the protection of its setting, the town of Kecskemét had arranged to pay tax directly to the pasha in Buda, thus gaining his protection and enjoying a special situation.
Kecskemét gradually absorbed the lands of those who had taken refuge in the town. Residents created a large common field for the animals that they bred. By the early 18th century, residents held nearly 30,000 cattle, which grazed on an almost field.
In the late 18th century, animal breeding started to decline in economic importance, as the fields had become overgrazed and denuded. It took nearly 100 years before the region developed its next major agricultural commodity. In the 19th century, Kecskemét was already part of an important wine district, but the city increased in importance after the vine-pest destroyed most vineyards in the hilly regions. The damage was less significant in the plains, areas of loose, sandy soil. In the 1870s, landowners planted large plantations of grapevines around the town, which were the basis of the 20th-century vineyards and wine industry of the 20th century in Kecskemét. Cottage-type settlements grew up at the vineyards to house workers, a pattern still characteristic of the rural areas around the town. The growth of the wine industry stimulated those of the food industry and trade. The city is still known for its barackpálinka, an apricot brandy.
With their accumulation of capital, peasants began to adopt bourgeois customs and goods, stimulating trade in the town. Such regional wealth led to construction of new buildings, especially those surrounding Kecskemét's main square. The Art Nouveau complex is architecturally significant and had the Town Hall, the New College, the Ornamented Palace, the Luther-Palace, the House of Trade (today the House of Young), and the Gentlemen's Casino (today the Hungarian Museum of Photography).
The town's growth suffered in the 1929–1933 economic world crisis and Great Depression, followed by the upheaval and the destruction of the Second World War. During the war and especially May–June 1944, Hungarian authorities rounded up and deported most of the Jews, who had been an important part of Kecskemét's thriving culture and trade, from the city to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where most of thenm were killed. After 1945, the new communist government, which was strongly influenced by the Soviet Union, imposed a different social-political system. Kecskemét's development slowed. The reorganisation in local government made Kecskemét lose much of its territory. Several new independent villages were formed in the area and were economically connected to the city .
In 1950, for the first time, Kecskemét took on a significant political administrative role, as it was made seat of, Bács-Kiskun County, the country's largest. In the special system of the so-called controlled economy under the communist regime, the status provided political and financial advantages, which greatly helped the city continue its growth. The architect József Kerényi (1900–1975) adapted and renovated several historic buildings for other uses and helped keep the varied historical character of the city alive. For instance, in the early 1970s, he renovated the early-18th-century Franciscan monastery for use as the Zoltán Kodály Conservatory, which opened for classes in 1975.
The Hungarian Association of Photographers formed the Hungarian Photography Foundation in 1990. It alos helped raise funds for the restoration of an 18th-century building in Kecskemét; last used as an Orthodox synagogue, it was adapted for the Hungarian Museum of Photography (Magyar Fotográfiai Múzeum), which opened in 1991. The museum holds work by Hungarian and other photographers of international and national reputations. It collects especially Hungarian photographers who successfully worked abroad."Hungarian Museum of Photography" , official website, English, accessed 7 September 2010
On 18 June 2008, the German car manufacturer Daimler announced that it would build a Mercedes-Benz manufacturing plant in Kecskemét and planned to invest €800 million (US$1.24 billion). The plant is one of the largest, if not the largest, ever in the region, and employs 2,500 people.
Economy In March 2012, the German automobile manufacturer Daimler AG opened a plant nearby Kecskemét to manufacture the new B-Class, A-Class and CLA-Class models. The Stuttgart-based company invested €800 million (US$1.24 billion) to build the new plant, which is expected to create 3,000 new jobs in the region. According to the plans, more than 100,000 vehicles will be produced annually at the factory.
As of 2021, the largest companies were:
Mercedes-Benz – cars: 5,000 employees Duvenbeck IMMO – logistics: 1,100 employees ACPS Automotive – towbars: 1,000 employees Knorr-Bremse – brakes: 950 employees Phoenix Mecano – enclosures and mechanical components: 850 employees CabTec – cable: 800 employees Fornetti – baked goods: 800 employees Univer Product – canned goods: 800 employees
Over the last few years, thousands of jobs have been created, causing an extremely low unemployment rate. In 2024, unemployment was 2,70%.
Public transport
With the 1900s industrialisation of Hungary, Kecskemét developed public transportation by trams for a population of 50,000. Not until after the Second World War would bus travel begin in the city. In 2010, with competitive funding from the EU, the city launched a number of trolleybus lines and in 2011 completely rebuilt the town centre as a trolleybus and pedestrian tourist zone.
Currently, bus travel is the only public transportation to many destinations. Bus destinations ():
1 Noszlopy park - GAMF - Homokbánya kollégium 1D Homokbánya kollégium - Mercedes gyár I. kapu 2 Széchenyi tér - Rendőrfalu 2A Széchenyi tér - Gokart Stadion 2D Noszlopy park - Mercedes gyár I. kapu 2S Noszlopy park - Déli Ipartelep - SMP gyár 3 Széchenyi tér - Műkertváros - Nyíri Úti Kórház 3A Széchenyi tér - Műkertváros 4 Margaréta Otthon - Széchenyi tér - Repülőtér 4A Széchenyi tér - Kisfái 4C Széchenyi tér - Repülőtér 5 Széchenyi tér - Máriaváros 6 Széchenyi tér - Szeleifalu 7 Noszlopy park - Knorr Bremse - Szilády Nyomda 7C Noszlopy park - Mindszenti körút 9 Széchenyi tér - Talfája köz 10 Széchenyi tér - TESCO M5 Hipermarket 11 Széchenyi tér - Petőfiváros - Kadafalvi út 11A Széchenyi tér - Petőfiváros - AUCHAN Kereskedelmi Központ 12 Margaréta Otthon - Belváros - Köztemető I. kapu 12D Hunyadiváros (Serleg utca) - Mercedes gyár I. kapu 13 Széchenyi tér - Knorr Bremse 13D Széchenyi tér - Mercedes-gyár I. kapu 13K Széchenyi tér - Georg Knorr út 14 Széchenyi tér - Széchenyiváros 14D Széchenyiváros (Margaréta Otthon) - Mercedes gyár I. kapu 15 Noszlopy park - Hetényegyháza 15D Hetényegyháza - Mercedes gyár I. kapu 16 Széchenyi tér - Miklovicsfalu 18 Széchenyi tér - Köztemető II. kapu 19 Noszlopy park - Miklóstelep 20 Széchenyi tér - Megyei Kórház - Széchenyiváros 20H Széchenyi tér - Köztemető II. kapu - Kórházak - Széchenyi tér 21 Noszlopy park - Széchenyiváros - Nagykörút - Noszlopy park 21D Noszlopy park - Kurucz körút - Mercedes gyár I. kapu 22 Noszlopy park - Csabay Géza körút - Nagykörút - Noszlopy park 23 Széchenyi tér - Katonatelep 23A Széchenyi tér - Hunyadiváros - Katonatelep 25 Noszlopy park - Műkertváros 28 Széchenyi tér - Szeleifalu 29 Széchenyi tér - Hetényegyháza 32 Noszlopy park - Matkó 34 Kadafalva - Széchenyiváros - Kadafalva 34A Széchenyi tér - Széchenyiváros - Kadafalva 34V Kadafalva - Petőfiváros - Kadafalva 169 Széchenyi tér - Miklovicsfalu - Széchenyi tér 350 Máriaváros vasútállomás - Széchenyiváros 353 Hetényegyháza vasútállomás - Hetényegyháza központ 354 Hetényegyháza vasútállomás - Hetényegyháza központ 916 Széchenyi tér - Talfája köz - Széchenyi tér
Demographics +Significant minority groups Nationality Population (2011)German 1,441Romanian 334Russian 181Serbian 167Croatian 130Slovak 100 Kecskemét has 107,267 residents (). The population is homogeneous, with a large Hungarian majority. A few thousand of the Romani minority live in the city; they formed their independent minority government in 1994. The demographics are 95% Hungarian, 0.8% Romani, 0.4% German, 0.2% Slovak; 4.8% other. The city had a thriving Jewish population before the Second World War, as represented by the grand synagogue. Most of the Jews were deported by the Nazi German forces in 1944 to concentration camps, where they were killed.