History
The area around Debrecen has been settled since the earliest times. When the Magyars arrived late in the 9th century, they found a colony of Slovaks here who called the region Dobre Zliem for its 'good soil'. Debrecen's wealth, based on salt, the fur trade and cattle-raising, grew steadily through the Middle Ages and increased during the Turkish occupation; the city kept all sides happy by paying tribute to the Ottomans, the Habsburgs and Transylvanian princes at the same time.
By the mid-16th century much of the population had converted to Protestantism and churches were being erected with gusto, earning the city the nickname 'Calvinist Rome'. Debrecen played a pivotal role in the 1848-49 War of Independence, and it experienced a major building boom in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Debrecen
Things to do
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