Cs.Sebestyén Kálmán - Szvircsek Ferenc: Salgótarjáni új almanach 1. (Salgótarján, 1997)
VI. TRADÍCIÓ ÉS KULTÚRA - 12. Rezümék
the centre of the mining works. In the year of the Compromise, in 1867 the first ironworks was established here as the extended railway line and the rich coal layers made it possible. Upon this basis the town grew into one of the most important mining and industrial centres of the country, having got constant flow of workforce. The glassworks was started in the barns of the Szilárdy mansion in 1870' s but in that time that was not profitable and after it had been burnt down they did not build it up again. Later, with the foundation of the glassworks (1893) and the ironworks (1894) the view of the old village was completely changed. It turned into the industrial centre of the whole county and via the railway line it had established close connection with the capital city: craftsmen, merchants, executives and clerks arrived and found home here. After the Compromise of 1867 the typically rapid improvement of the industry in Hungary was even more dramatical in Salgótarján. The technical and human resources of the heavy industry helped to change the overall picture of the village and its society and it accelerated the development of the town. The first miners had come here from all parts of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, so at first there had not been much Hungarian speech in and around the mines. But since 1880' s the local peasants and day-labourers started to provide the majority of the workers. The number of its inhabitants increased so rapidly that in 1890 Salgótarján, with its 9478 people preceeded the official administrative county town, Balassagyarmat (7738 people) and the most important economical, political, commercial and cultural centre of the county, Losonc (7460 inhabitants). The originally poor farmer village first became a mining town, then the industrial centre of the county, later the official, political, commercial and cultural centre of the region. Salgótarján is still well-known as a mining town and we can consider that natural because it
