Hausel Sándor: A balassagyarmati görögkeleti közösség - Adatok, források és tanulmányok a Nógrád Megyei Levéltárból 23. (Balassagyarmat, 2000)

SUMMARY Balassagyarmat was characterized by great variety of denominations and ethnic groups in the period between the resettlement after forcing out the Turks and the last third of the 19th century. In the market-town the Roman Catholics, the Lutherans, the Reformed, the Orthodox had churches and the Jewish Community had a synagogue. There lived Slovaks, Jews, Hungarians, Germans and Gypsies in significant number in the town. This multi-ethnic population was enriched by the orthodox inhabitants, who were mostly Macedonian origin. Their number never exceeded 1 % of the existing population whilst their economic significance was much bigger before the reform era. The orthodox carried on business which included commerce, financial transactions and credit operations. The trade of period monopol goods was in their hands. Several orthodox families - Garba, Bozda, Vidák, Nedics - took a prominent part in the local government and political life. They had extensive family, commercial and religions connections in Hungary, in the Habsburg Empire and on the Balkan. Their history is particulary interesting because they had the only Orthodox mother-church in Nógrád county. The first church was built in 1785, in the completion of which Bozda and Garba families played an outstanding role. Mihajlo Zsivkovics, the famous iconograph, also was in the town in 1815 when the frescos of the church were painted. The first church was demolished in 1908 because the number of the orthodox decreased. The modest presentday building was built on the site of the former one. Since the 1980s there have been fine arts exhibitions in it. Although the church was founded by the Greek, it became Serb soon, and it is called Serb church even nowadays. The two-century history of the Orthodox community in Balassagyarmat is entwined with the achievement of middle-class status in the town. Due to town-development policy of the two landowner families, the Balassa and the Zichy, permanent changes began in the social structure of Balassagyarmat from the middle of the 18th century as a result of which the peasant markettown became a settlement with great number of tradesmen and craftsmen towards the beginning of the 19th century. The development made influence on the architecture of the city centre, too. First of all, the Main Street received an urbanized character. The community in question had a share in this process. Their economic contribution and that of cultural history was an interesting patch of colour in the 18-19th century history of Balassagyarmat. 50