FORMATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE MEZŐHEGYES SETTLEMENT STRUCTURE

Abstract

After its establishment, it attracted to itself like a magnet those central functions that stood
out from its narrower environment, were versatilely connected to horse breeding, thanks to
which it gained national and then European fame in a short time.The development of the
settlement in the century and a half that has passed since the agreement was extremely
dynamic, in which the Ménesbirtok played a key role, with development indices exceeding
its age and its status as a model economy, constantly renewing itself. Simultaneously with
industrialization, institutions and services satisfying the needs of the capitalist economy
and the transforming society were also built and settled. Between the two world wars, the
development of the settlement continued vigorously, which is indicated not only by the
dynamic growth of the population. After the Second World War, a fundamental change took
place. As a result of the resettlement of the outlying population to the interior and the
partial eradication of the majors, the area of the settlement's inner territory increased
significantly, and the development of the socialist urban image began. The construction of
high-rise public and residential buildings that reshaped the image of the center began, and
spectacular communal and infrastructural developments took place until the midle 1980’s,
one of the results of which was the repeated declaration as a city. Beyond the city core,
however, the residential area remained village-like, and the demographic erosion of the
outlying majors accelerated. The system change and the development of the market
economy brought new opportunities to the life of Mezőhegyes as well. The extent of the city
has not increased fundamentally, but the new residential buildings and panel
reconstruction, as well as the rehabilitation of the brownfields, outline the future of a more
livable city. Even today, the structure of the city is not compact, but rather consists of
mosaics of special neighborhoods.