Helvécia

Helvécia
Country  Hungary
County Bács-Kiskun
Area
  Total 56.47 km2 (21.80 sq mi)
Population (2015)
  Total 4,522[1]
  Density 80.1/km2 (207/sq mi)
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
  Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code 6034
Area code(s) 76
Location of Bács-Kiskun county in Hungary

Helvécia is a large village in Bács-Kiskun county, in the Southern Great Plain region of southern Hungary.

History

Helvécia was founded in 1892 by Swiss-born teacher Heinrich Eduard Weber (Wéber Ede in Hungarian). After the great phylloxera epidemic that had destroyed much of the historical vineyard plantings in the 1870s, sandy soils of the Great Plains became much more valuable for grape cultivation than before. Helvécia was settled by 501 vineyard workers, most of them from the Balaton wine country. It gained independence of nearby Kecskemét in 1952.

Geography

It covers an area of 73.66 km2 (28 sq mi) and has a population of 4522 people (2015). Most of its inhabitants work in agriculture. Approximately half of the population lives in hamlets. The rest is distributed between two centres approximately 3 km apart from each other: the older Helvécia-Ótelep, and the Szabó-Sándor-telep or Újtelep, originally a housing area for the former collective farm.

Twin towns — Sister cities

Helvécia is twinned with Sirnach, Switzerland

Accident

In 1973, a severe level crossing accident took place here with 37 people at least killed.

References

  1. Gazetteer of Hungary, 1st January 2015. Hungarian Central Statistical Office. 03/09/2015

Coordinates: 46°50′N 19°37′E / 46.833°N 19.617°E / 46.833; 19.617

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/8/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.