Pusztaszabolcs

History

Although first attested as Zabolch in a 1270 charter, the modern settlement coalesced only after 1861, when the Southern State Railway opened a station on the freshly laid Budapest–Zimony line; within a decade trackside plots were selling for twice the price of the surrounding cropland. Rail employment, grain warehousing and a sugar-beet press boosted head-count from 642 in 1870 to 5,904 by 2015, and the 2022 census records a further rise to 6,134 residents, two-thirds of whom commute daily to Dunaújváros steelworks or Székesfehérvár electronics plants.

Landmarks

The town centre is anchored by two contrasting churches: the single-nave Roman Catholic Church of the Visitation (1834, Copf-style façade and Empire altar), enlarged after the 1863 cholera epidemic, and the Reformed church (1928), whose square brick tower mirrors inter-war Calvinist architecture across Fejér. Between them stands a First-World-War stele by sculptor Lajos Berán, while the small open-air railway museum beside the station preserves a 1942-built MÁV 375 steam locomotive—a type once synonymous with branch-line traffic in Transdanubia. An autumn railway open-house forms part of the town's annual event calendar.

Transport

Since 2018 the municipality has capitalised on its transport node: an EU-funded project electrified and doubled 55 km of track between Pusztaszabolcs and Százhalombatta, replaced the century-old lattice footbridge with lifts and glazed walkways, and built a 300-space park-and-ride intended to shift commuter traffic off Highway 6. Parallel investments laid a 23-km cycleway that ties the town into the Lake Velence loop and the Danube EuroVelo 6 spur.

Twin towns – sister cities

Pusztaszabolcs is twinned with:

• GER Staufenberg, Germany
• ROU Dorobanți, Romania

Gallery

File:First World War monument (Pusztaszabolcs).jpg|First World War monument File:Pusztaszabolcs-első-katonai felmérésének-térképe.jpg|Map of Pusztaszabolcs from the First Military Mapping Survey of the Austrian Empire. File:Pusztaszabolcs-második-katonai felmérésének-térképe.jpg|Map of Pusztaszabolcs from the Second Military Mapping Survey of the Austrian Empire. File:Pusztaszabolcs-harmadik-katonai felmérésének-térképe.jpg|Map of Pusztaszabolcs from the Third Military Mapping Survey of the Austrian Empire.

References

References

1. ''[http://www.ksh.hu/apps/shop.kiadvany?p_kiadvany_id=81322&p_temakor_kod=KSH&p_session_id=800051036609396&p_lang=EN Gazetteer of Hungary, 1 January 2015]''. Hungarian Central Statistical Office.
2. (2025). "Pusztaszabolcs város története és nevezetességei". Pusztaszabolcs Municipality.
3. (26 September 2023). "Pusztaszabolcs – Population Census 2022". CityPopulation.de – data from Hungarian Central Statistical Office.
4. (3 December 2022). "Átadták a villamosított Százhalombatta–Pusztaszabolcs vasútvonalat". MÁV-START Zrt..