Kisvárda

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Kisvárda map

phone district code:

population:

17550 person

area:

3591 km²

Kisvárda (German: Kleinwardein;) is a large town in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county, in the Northern Great Plain region of eastern Hungary.

Known in the Middle Ages as "Warda" oder "Warada", the (Kis-) (=small) prefix was later added to differentiate the town from Nagyvárad (="Big Varad") in Transylvania. Today Kisvárda has about 18,000 inhabitants.

History

Historically, Kisvarda has been a market town for the surrounding agricultural district, and is also has some light industry such as distilling. It is on the main railway line from Budapest to the Ukraine. Kisvarda also attracts tourists to its thermal springs, and the ruins of a medieval castle.

Prior to World War II, Kisvarda had a large Jewish community that represented about 30 percent of the town's population. They were confined to a ghetto in 1944, and then deported to Auschwitz. The majority perished there. A small community was re-established after the war, but almost no Jews are left in Kisvarda today. The former synagogue, which remains one of the most imposing structures in Kisvarda, is now a local history museum known as the Retkozi Muzeum.