Nagyecsed

Nagyecsed
Flag Coat of arms
Nagyecsed
Coordinates: 47°52′N 22°24′E
Country	Hungary
County	Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg
Area
• Total	43.87 km2 (16.94 sq mi)
Population  (2005)
• Total	6,706
• Density	156.55/km2 (405.5/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code	4355
Area code	44

Nagyecsed is a town in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county, in the Northern Great Plain region of eastern Hungary.

The old name of the town was Ecsed but over time it has been renamed Nagyecsed, meaning "grand" or "great Ecsed" to distinguish it. The area had close associations with a cadet branch of the Báthory family. Elizabeth Báthory was raised in the town's now ruined castle. Her main residence and later her prison was Csejte Castle, Upper Hungary, now in Slovakia, but she was buried in the family crypt at Ecsed.

The town's castle was demolished in the eighteenth century after the Kuruc uprisings.

Ecsed, the lake and the old castle

Geography

It covers an area of 43.87 km² (17 sq mi) and has a population of 6706 people (2005).

The town is divided in two by the Crasna River. It formerly lay north west of the Ecsed Marsh (Ecsedi-láp), which was the largest contiguous marshland of the Great Hungarian Plain. As part of water control operations by Tibor Károlyi this was drained in the late nineteenth century, and the lands thus reclaimed transformed into farmland.

Notable people

• Bódi Guszti (born 1958), a Lovari Romani, Gypsy, Hungarian musician, composer and singer