Dear Visitor,
Welcome to Sajószentpéter, a town located in the central part of Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County, between the north-eastern foothills of the Bükk Mountains and the Sajó River, a town proud of its historical heritage.
At the same time, let me invite you to a virtual journey through our town, where through the historical heritage left behind by our ancestors you can gain insight into the rich history of this once prestigious market town hosting national events, later a district capital known for its wine, and then an important heavy industry town with a history spanning over seven centuries. You can also get to know the present of a continuously evolving small town, which can provide hints about its future.
This website was created not only for you but also with you in mind. We aim to inform the residents about the recent developments in our town, share our plans for the future in order to work together to build a livable small town that can be not just a place of residence for us but also a home for our children.
We strive to provide up-to-date information on the town's public life, news, events, the life of our institutions, their contact details, and their work processes, including administrative procedures and necessary documents. Additionally, we give an account on the cultural and sporting activities in the town, current events, and community programs.
For visitors to our town, we aim to serve as a guide to ensure that their time spent in our town is as enjoyable and useful as possible, tailored to their preferences. We want them to feel comfortable and return to us as often as possible.
We look forward to welcoming you and wish you a pleasant exploration.
Dr. Faragó Péter Mayor
Sajószentpéter Walk
Sajószentpéter, with its highly favorable geographical location, situated on the northern extension of the Bükk Mountains' border, is one of the oldest settlements in the Sajó Valley and was once of national significance. Its history is still preserved today through several heritage and heritage-style buildings. Let's explore the town together on a walk and take a look at some of its landmarks!
For tourists mostly arriving from the direction of Miskolc on Route 26, the first encounter is the historic Roman Catholic church built on a small hill just a few hundred meters from the town's boundary in 1762. What makes the church unique is that during his service, priest Demeter István, a poet and painter, used contemporary artworks as well to decorate the interior of the church. In 2009, a ’Malenky robot memorial plaque’ was placed on the church wall to commemorate those deported from Sajószentpéter.
The essence of the town's history lies in its ancient core, the present-day Kálvin Square. At its center stands the most significant and beautiful heritage building in the town, the Reformed Great Church.
This Gothic-style stone church, was originally a Catholic church. It is 32 meters long, 8 meters wide, and 8.2 meters high, with a single nave, a single tower, and an east-west longitudinal axis. The altar was located in the polygonal eastern end. This section is reinforced externally by six triple-section buttresses. The 35-meter high tower, reinforced with thick support walls, faces west and features Gothic windows in the fields partitioned by sills below the spire. The copper covered peak of the spire, with its wooden gallery and onion dome, bears a flag made from tin plate, with the number 1753. Inside the tower, two bells remain from the original three, with weights of 200 kg and 600 kg.
The dwelling, which developed into a market town by 1446, saw the spread of the Reformation, and as early as in 1555 the first independently functioning Reformed church in the county took possession of the new church building. Although it suffered damage in a fire in 1756, the building was rebuilt multiple times throughout its history. A unique feature of the church is the carved and painted pulpit in the so-called peasant Baroque style of the 18th century, adorned with a pelican symbol on its tester, and the ceiling with 173 painted coffers.
It took 338 years from the church's inception for the first organ to be built, which was consecrated on 22 October, 1893.
Notable figures like the poet Lévay József, a polymath of the Reform era, and Pécsi Sándor, an unforgettable figure in Hungarian theatre and film, were baptized here in 1825 and in 1922 consecutively.
In the shady park surrounding the church, two historical memorials – the monument commemorating World War I and World War II and the Millenium Memorial, as well as the columns of two former prominent Reformed pastors, Thury Farkas Pál and Őri Fülep Gábor evoke the town's past.
Opposite the church, adjacent to the building now serving as the mayor's office, stands the Gedeon Mansion, a classicistic-style heritage building constructed around 1820. This single-story building has a four-axis façade and is adorned on its right side with a portico supported by an eight-column arcade with basket arches. On its wall, there is Szentpétery Imre’s memorial plaque, commemorating Rákóczi's faithful brigadier, who hosted the prince in the former mansion on this site in February 1707. Later, the mansion came into the possession of the Ónody family, one of whose members was Ónody András, also known as Angel Bandi, a notorious outlaw. After World War II, these buildings were used for educational purposes, and currently, a vocational institution operates within them.
Exiting through the northern gate of the square, two buildings once again capture our attention.
On the wall of the Lévay Memorial House, a plaque still reads, ″Lévay József was born in this house...″. However, the town's most famous native, its honorary citizen and a polymath of the Reform era - poet, translator, journalist, critic, teacher, orator and county clerk - contradicts this in his own diary. The birthplace, the ‘old thatched cottage,’ was demolished during his childhood, and the current building was constructed in its place. The Lévay House was first marked with a white marble plaque in 1927, and when it came into municipal ownership in 1988, two gray granite plaques replaced it, one featuring the poet's portrait. Since its renovation in 2000, in the memorial building a small portion of the rather scattered Lévay legacy provides information about the poet and his era for local schoolchildren and visitors.
On the neighboring plot stands a two-columned, one-story arcaded house built in the early 18th century. Its façade features three oval lighting apertures and it comprises rooms with Bohemian spherical voults, a beehive oven, and period furniture. Once serving as a butcher shop, it now functions as a folk museum. During the historical downtown reconstruction in 2010, both houses were renovated. In addition to the Lévay House, a leisure-oriented folk museum was established, allowing youth to become acquainted with the town's historical, ethnographic and cultural values.