Aszod

At times called the 'capital of the Galga region', the town's name comes from the Hungarian word 'aszó', meaning a periodic water-course. Its educational institutes make Aszód a regional intellectual centre.

Twenty-one archaeological sites have been excavated along the edge of the town; some of the findings unearhed date back several tens of thousands of years. The remains of a Neolithic settlement and cemetery are particularly significant. A section of the Csörsz Trench, a Roman-Sarmatian entrenchment, stretches along Sinai Hill (Sínai-hegy).

The settlement was first mentioned in a charter of 1320. It was destroyed during the Turkish occupation, but has been the natural centre of the Galga region since the early 18th century.

With the support of the local land owning Podmaniczky family, the Lutherans ran a secondary school. This Lutheran middle school founded in 1727 drew students from afar. Among the many famous people who studied here, the poet of the Independence War in 1848-49, Sándor Petőfi stands out particularly.

The middle school was turned into a grammar school (főgimnázium) in 1912. In 1891 another Lutheran school was opened; the Civic Girls' Institute of Education was one of the precursors of woman's education in Hungary up to its nationalisation in 1948. Central Europe's first young offender institution was created here in 1884. One of the most significant aircraft factories of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy prior to World War I, the Hungarian Lloyd Aircraft and Engine Factory, was in Aszód. It had to be closed according to the terms of the Trianon Peace Treaty.

How to get there:
Aszód is a road and railway junction. The settlement is accessible from Route 3 and the M3 motorway. By train take the Budapest-Hatvan-Miskolc line.