About Hungary

     Hungary (Hungarian: Magyarország; IPA: [mɒɟɒrorsaːɡ]; listen (help·info)), officially in English the Republic of Hungary (Magyar Köztársaság listen (help·info), literally Magyar (Hungarian) Republic), is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest. Hungary has been a member state of the European Union since May 1, 2004.

     Hungary continues to demonstrate economic growth as one of the newest member countries of the European Union (since 2004). The private sector accounts for over 80% of GDP. Hungary gets nearly one third of all foreign direct investment flowing in to Central Europe. Foreign ownership of and investment in Hungarian firms are widespread, with cumulative foreign direct investment totalling more than US$23 billion since 1989. The Hungarian sovereign debt's credit rating is BBB+ as of July 2006, making Hungary the only other country in the EU apart from Poland not to enjoy an A grade score. Inflation and unemployment have been on the rise in the past few years, and they are expected to rise further. Foreign investors' trust in the Hungarian economy has declined, as they deem that the stringency measures planned in the second half of 2006 are not satisfactory, their focus being mainly on increasing the income side rather than curbing government spendings. Economic reform measures such as health care reform, tax reform, and local government financing are being addressed by the present government.

     The Hungarian government has expressed a desire to adopt the euro currency between 2010 and 2014. However, foreign analysts widely criticised that date (2010) as highly unrealistic given the current shape of the economy in relation to the Maastricht criteria; their assessments suggest that a date of 2013-2014 for Euro adoption is more realistic.

About Bekes

    Békés [ˈbeːkeːʃ] (Slovak: Békéš, Romanian: Bichiş) is a town in Békés county, Hungary. It lies about 10 km north of Békéscsaba and 190 km east of Budapest.

    The area of the present town has been inhabited since ancient times, due to its good soil and proximity to rivers. After Hungarians conquered the area, Békés and its surroundings were the property of the Csolt clan. Békés (the name means "peaceful") was originally the name of the castle which gave its name to the comitatus, and, like many castles, was possibly named after its first steward. Many documents from the 1200s prove that Békés was the county seat.

    After 1403, when the area became the estate of the Maróthi family, Békés slowly lost its importance and the role of the centre of the comitatus was gradually taken over by Gyula.

    In 1566 the castle of Gyula was occupied by the Ottoman army, and Békés fell under Ottoman rule too. The Ottomans built a motte castle in the town, but it was destroyed in 1595 when the Ottomans had to defend Gyula against the Hungarians who tried to get it back. The area became deserted. It was only exactly 100 years later, in 1695 that Békés was freed from Ottoman rule.

    During the freedom fight led by Prince Francis II Rákóczi in the early 1700s the area of Békés was deserted again, for the last time. In 1720 John George Harruckern bought the whole country. He gave privileges to the serfs of the area, and gradually the population grew.

Tourist Sights :

• Széchenyi square (main square) with several historical buildings
• City hall
• Protestant church (Zopf style)
• Roman Catholic church (1795)
• Greek orthodox Church (one of the northernmost ones)
• School museum
• Several bridges on the backwaters of the regulated Körös river; Békés is called the "city of bridges" because of them
• Small-boat harbour