Dunaújváros (; also known by other alternative names) is újváan industrial city in Fejér County, Central Hungary. It is a city with county rights. Situated 70 kilometres (43 miles) south of Budapest on the Danube, the city is best known for its steelworks, which is the largest in the country. It was built in the 1950s on the site of the former village of Dunapentele and was originally given the name of Sztálinváros before acquiring its current name in 1961.
Geography
Dunaújváros is located in the Transdanubian part of the Great Hungarian Plain (called Mezőföld), south of Budapest on the Danube, Highway 6, Motorways M6, M8 and the electrified Budapest-Pusztaszabolcs-Dunaújváros-Paks railway.
Etymology and names
The city replaced the village of Dunapentele ("Pantaleon up on the Danube"), named after Saint Pantaleon. The construction of this new industrial city started in 1949 and the original village was renamed Sztálinváros ("Stalin City") in 1951. After the Hungarian revolution of 1956 the new government renamed the city the neutral Dunaújváros in 1961, which means "Danube New City" (New City on the Danube).
The city is also known by alternative names in other languages: ; ; and .
History
Dunaújváros is one of the newest cities in the country. It was built in the 1950s during the industrialization of the country under Socialist rule, as a new city next to an already existing village, Dunapentele.
Dunapentele
Dunapentele was not built on until the 1950s. The construction started on the Danube's right bank. The area has been inhabited since ancient times. When Western Hungary was a Roman province under the name Pannonia, a military camp and a town called Intercisa stood in this place, at the border of the province. The Hungarians conquered the area in the early 10th century. The village of Pentele, named after the medieval Greek saint, Pantaleon, was founded shortly after.
Between 1541 and 1688 the village was under Ottoman rule, and during the 150-year war it was completely destroyed. During the freedom fight led by Prince Ferenc II Rákóczi of Transylvania, the place was deserted again. In the 18th century the village began to prosper. In 1830 the village was given the right to hold markets days twice a week. In 1831 there was a cholera epidemic and which caused a small scale peasants revolt. In 1833 Pentele was granted town status (oppidum) by Ferdinand V. The citizens took part in the freedom fight in 1848–49.
After the Second World War the new, Communist government started a major industrialisation programme, in support of its rearmament efforts. In 1949 Dunaújváros was chosen as the site of the largest iron and steel works in the country. The focus on steel production had the purpose of arming the socialist territories in fear of a third world war. With a strong steel industry they could quickly stock up on weaponry and machinery. Originally they were to be built close to Mohács, but the Hungarian-Yugoslavian relations worsened, and this new site was chosen, farther away from the Yugoslav border. The city was designed to have 25,000 residents.
The construction of the city began on May 2, 1950, near Dunapentele. Within one year more than 1,000 housing units were built and construction on the factory complex began. The city officially took the name of Joseph Stalin on April 4, 1952; its name was Sztálinváros 'Stalin City' as a parallel to Stalingrad in the USSR.
The metal works (formerly called: Dunai Vasmű, now ISD DUNAFERR) were opened in 1954. The city had a population of 27,772 at this time; 85% of them lived in nice, comfortable apartments, while about 4,200 people still lived in uncomfortable barracks which originally provided "homes" for the construction workers.