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| 3106 The map of Hungary |
Posted on 05.07.2017, 16.07.2017
Located in Central Europe, in the Carpathian Basin, between Slovakia, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, and Ukraine, Hungary covers an area of 93,030 square kilometres and has 10 million inhabitants. Its capital is Budapest, officially created in 1873 by the merger of the neighboring cities of Pest, Buda and Óbuda. Originally a Celtic settlement, then the Roman capital of Lower Pannonia, it was from around 1300 to 1873 the capital of the Kingdom of Hungary for five periods of less than a century each, and after that, until 1918, became the co-capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
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| 3110 The flag of Hungary, with its map and coat of arms (from the series Flags of the World) |
Following centuries of successive habitation by Celts, Romans, Slavs, Gepids and Avars, the foundation of Hungary was laid in the late 9th century by the Hungarian grand prince Árpád in the conquest of the Carpathian Basin. The year 972 marked the date when the ruling prince Géza officially started to integrate Hungary into the Christian Western Europe. His first-born son, Saint Stephen I, became the first King of Hungary, and turned Hungary in a Catholic Apostolic Kingdom.
Ladislaus I extended Hungary's frontier in Transylvania and invaded Croatia in 1091. The Croatian campaign culminated in the Battle of Gvozd Mountain in 1097 and a personal union of Croatia and Hungary in 1102. In 1241-1242, the kingdom received a major blow with the Tatar Invasion. Up to half of Hungary's then population were victims of the invasion. After the Mongols retreated, King Béla IV ordered the construction of hundreds of stone castles and fortifications. The Mongols returned in 1285, but the newly built stone-castle systems and new tactics stopped them.
The first Angevin king, Charles I of Hungary, successfully restored royal power, and the second, Louis the Great (1342-1382), led many successful military campaigns from Lithuania to Southern Italy, and was also King of Poland from 1370. After King Louis died without a male heir, the country was stabilized only when Sigismund of Luxembourg (1387-1437) succeeded to the throne, who in 1433 also became Holy Roman Emperor. The last strong king of medieval Hungary was Matthias Corvinus (1458-1490), son of John Hunyadi.
The Ottomans gained a decisive victory over the Hungarian army at the Battle of Mohács in 1526, where King Louis II died while fleeing. Amid political chaos, the divided Hungarian nobility elected two kings simultaneously, John Zápolya and Ferdinand I of the Habsburg dynasty. With the conquest of Buda by the Turks in 1541, Hungary was divided into three parts and remained so until the end of the 17th century. In 1686, the Holy League's army reconquered Buda from the Turks, and by 1718 the entire Kingdom of Hungary was removed from Ottoman rule.
Following the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary was formed. This empire, the second largest in Europe, and the third most populous, was one of the Central Powers in WWI. Hungary's current borders were established in 1920 by the Treaty of Trianon, after the empire was dissolved. In WWII it joined the Axis Powers. suffering significant damage and casualties. After the war it became a satellite state of the Soviet Union, which contributed to the establishment of a socialist republic spanning four decades (1947-1989).
Hungary's geography has been defined by its two main waterways, the Danube and Tisza rivers. The common tripartite division of the country into three sections - Dunántúl ("beyond the Danube"), Tiszántúl ("beyond the Tisza"), and Duna-Tisza köze ("between the Danube and Tisza") - is a reflection of this. Dunántúl is a primarily hilly region with a terrain varied by low mountains, and the Duna-Tisza köze and Tiszántúl are characterized mainly by the Great Hungarian Plain (Alföld).
More than one quarter of the Hungary's population lived in the Budapest metropolitan area. According to the 2011 census, 80.7% of the population are Hungarian. The official language is Hungarian, the most widely spoken Uralic language in the world. Well known for its rich cultural history, Hungary has contributed significantly to arts, music, literature, sports and science and technology. It joined the European Union in 2004 and has been part of the Schengen Area since 2007.
The flag of Hungary is a horizontal tricolour of red, white and green, and its form originates from national republican movements of the 18th and 19th centuries. The colours are derived from the historical Hungarian coat of arms, which have essentially remained in the same form since the mid-15th century, with exception to some minor differences, and were marshalled from arms that first appeared in the late 12th and early 13th century as arms of the Árpáds.
The current coat of arms of Hungary was reinstated in 1990, after the end of communist rule. The arms have been used before, both with and without the Holy Crown of Hungary, sometimes as part of a larger, more complex coat of arms, and its elements date back to the Middle Ages. The shield is split into two parts. The dexter features the so-called Árpád stripes, four Argent (silver) and four Gules (red) stripes. Traditionally, the silver stripes represent four rivers: Duna (Danube), Tisza, Dráva, and Száva.
The sinister consists of an Argent (silver) double cross on Gules (red) base, situated inside a small Or (golden) crown, the crown is placed on the middle heap of three Vert (green) hills, representing the mountain ranges Tátra, Mátra, and Fátra. On the top is the Holy Crown of Hungary, also known as the Crown of Saint Stephen), which was the coronation crown used by the Kingdom of Hungary for most of its existence. No king of Hungary was regarded as having been truly legitimate without being crowned with it.
About the stamps
On the postcard 3106
The first stamp, designed by Attila Elekes and issued on September 8, 2016 depicts the field elm (Ulmus minor), chosen Tree of the Year 2016 by the National Forestry Association. The purpose of The Tree of the Year initiative is to highlight tree species that deserve care and protection due to their considerable importance in forestry yet do not receive the attention they merit.
The second stamp is part of the series Fauna of Hungary, about which I wrote here.
On the postcard 3110
The first stamp, designed by András Szunyoghy, was isued on April 3, 2017, to mark The 50th Anniversary of the Death of Kodály Zoltán, 1882-1967. Zoltán Kodály was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher, well known internationally as the creator of the Kodály Method.
The last stamp, designed by Richárd Márk Nagy, Gergely Hosszú, Attila Róbert Cosovan and Tamás Rudolf Cosovan, was issued on April 30, 2010 to mark the Expo 2010 Shanghai China. Expo 2010 was held from 1 May to 31 October 2010, and was a major World Expo, in the tradition of international fairs and expositions, the first since 2000. The theme of the exposition was Better City - Better Life.
References
Hungary - Wikipedia
Flag of Hungary - Wikipedia
Sender 3106, 3110: Bernadett Bernáth (direct swap)
Sent from Ajka (Veszprém / Hungary), on 30.06.2017
3110: Concept by Postcardsmarket - Flags of the World series
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