Kisnána

Kisnána
Village
The ruins of the castle
Coat of arms
Kisnána Location in Hungary
Coordinates: 47°51′07″N 20°08′46″E
Country	Hungary
County	Heves
District	Gyöngyös
First mentioned	1325
Government
• Mayor	László Paulenka (Ind.)
Area
• Total	22.60 km2 (8.73 sq mi)
Population  (2022)
• Total	937
• Density	41/km2 (110/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code	3264
Area code	37
Website	www.kisnana.hu

The ruins of the castle from the air

Kisnána is a village in Heves County, Hungary, beside of the Forrás creek in the Mátra mountain ranges. As of 2022 census, it has a population of 937 (see Demographics). The village located 5.9 km from (Nr. 84) Kisterenye–Kál-Kápolna railway line, 16.7 km from the main road 3 and 21.6 km from the M3 motorway. Although the Verpelét railway station is the closest, but public transport on the railway line ceased on March 3, 2007. The closest train station with public transport in Ludas 19,6 km far.

History

The village has an interesting assembly of buildings worth visiting. There is the old castle and the old Árpád age church inside the castle. The castle in the village that was built in the 11th or 12th century. In the Árpád age the region was in the possession of the Aba Genus, who was related to the king of Hungary. The leader of the Genus, Aba Sámuel married the sister of king Saint Stephen. In 1044 Aba Sámuel became King of Hungary. Later descendants of the Genus were smaller families and one of them, the Kompolti family became the landowner of Kisnána. Kompolti János built the first part of the castle, as mentioned in the charters from 1445 about the „castrum” (fortress). In 1521 the landowner of the castle was István Losonczy who defended Temesvár against the Türks. The last owner was László Móré, who alternately supported the two kings of the early Turkish times: János Szapolyai or Habsburg Ferdinánd. But the Turks defeated him and László Móré died in the prison of Seven Towers in Istanbul, capital of the Osman Turk Empire. In the old castle of the Kompolti family there is another, even older architectural heritage building from the early Árpád ages. It is a gothic church, originally built in the romanesque style. The excavations of the ruins of this church revealed the foundations of an ancient rotunda. Originally this rotunda had been built first on the hill and later it was gradually extended. When the Kompolti family surrounded it by walls, they developed it as the castle-church and rebuilt it finally in the gothic style in the 14th century.

Demographics

According the 2022 census, 94.5% of the population were of Hungarian ethnicity, 17.7% were Gypsies, 6.7% were Slovaks, 0.6% Germans and 5.4% were did not wish to answer. The religious distribution was as follows: 46.0% Roman Catholic, 1.9% Calvinist, 10.5% non-denominational, and 38.9% did not wish to answer. The Gypsies and the Slovaks have a local nationality government. No population in farms.

Population by years:

Year	1870	1880	1890	1900	1910	1920	1930	1941
Population	1386	1011	1149	1306	1412	1362	1530	1623
Year	1949	1960	1970	1980	1990	2001	2011	2022
Population	1379	1474	1504	1429	1293	1133	1074	937

Sources

• Gerő, L. (1984): Magyar műemléki ABC. (Hungarian Architectural Heritage ABC.) Budapest
• Gervers-Molnár, V. (1972): A középkori Magyarország rotundái. (Rotunda in the Medieval Hungary). Akadémiai, Budapest
• Henszlmann, I. (1876): Magyarország ó-keresztyén, román és átmeneti stylü mű-emlékeinek rövid ismertetése, (Old-Christian, Romanesque and Transitional Style Architecture in Hungary). Királyi Magyar Egyetemi Nyomda, Budapest