Hajdúsámson: Landscape and Local History

Hajdúsámson’s points of interest range from a protected landscape to church architecture, collection items, and commemoration. Martinkai-legelő represents the natural side of the town; the Reformed Church and the World War memorial each add their own dimension to local history. This gives you a choice of focus when planning your holiday: should your time away be devoted mainly to landscapes, centre on the town’s history, or combine both?

Natural landscape at Martinkai-legelő

Martinkai-legelő is within the administrative area of Hajdúsámson and lies east of the Martinka district. It is part of the Hajdúsági Landscape Protection Area. Strictly protected plants and insects can be found there. Here, you can consider the site both in its precise geographical context and as part of a protected area.

The Hungarian pasqueflower is also part of the region’s natural landscape. It is considered the most valuable element of Hajdúsámson’s nature and today lives only on the sandy soils of the Nyírség. This extends the view beyond Martinkai-legelő to a broader landscape. Those interested in nature will find several different scales reflected in these details: the location east of Martinka, the protected area, and the wider Nyírség region.

Church and local history

Hajdúsámson’s Reformed Church stands in the town centre on Rákóczi utca. It was built at the end of the 19th century on foundations that are several centuries old. The building therefore combines a comparatively recent date of construction with a much older structural base.

The first church on this site already had Orthodox features. During construction of the present building, the foundations of a wall surrounding the altar of the original church were discovered. The foundations that were found indicate Orthodox church architecture. Local history is therefore significant not only in the present church building, but also in the site’s earlier use, made visible by these structural traces.

Collection and remembrance

The cast-iron stove collection comprises around 180 stoves, 150 charcoal irons, and 80 iron mortars, as well as small sculptures and hanging lamps. It can be viewed in the exhibition space of the Petőfi Sándor Town Library, Cultural Centre and Exhibition Venue. The numbers give a sense of the collection’s size; the other objects complement the stoves with a variety of forms and items.

The World War memorial is located in Szabadság Square. Originally, it commemorated 273 victims of the First World War from Hajdúsámson. In 1998, a marble plaque was added bearing the names of the victims of the Second World War, including 122 fallen soldiers from Hajdúsámson and 188 Jewish residents who were deported. The sculptural group was created by sculptor László Némethy and master stonemason Károly Harró. The memorial thus brings remembrance of both world wars and artistic design together.

More nature and culture experiences in Hajdú-Bihar

The Hortobágyi National Park – the Puszta, a World Heritage site, is located in the Hajdú-Bihar destination. It covers almost 75,000 hectares in the Great Hungarian Plain in eastern Hungary and preserves visible evidence of more than 2,000 years of traditional pastoralism as a cultural landscape. This is on a different scale from the local natural landscape near Hajdúsámson: here, the focus is on an extensive landscape and its traditional use.

For walks, the Hortobágyi-halastó nature trail offers routes of 3.6, 5.4, or 10 kilometres, with no difficult sections. In the same destination, the Shepherds’ Museum in Hortobágy presents the lives of shepherds, as well as handmade clothing, tools, and decorated personal items. It is housed in a former carriage shed that was part of the Hortobágyi Csárda complex. Hajdú-Bihar thus brings together a range of themes: open cultural landscapes, a choice of trail lengths, and insights into shepherding and craftsmanship.

Choose your holiday base according to your interests

When searching for a holiday apartment, it helps to first decide what kind of stay you want. In Hajdúsámson, the themes range from protected landscapes to church architecture, collections, and remembrance. If you would like to include more nature and cultural destinations, the Hajdú-Bihar destination offers additional options, such as the Puszta, the nature trail, and the Shepherds’ Museum. This lets you focus your search on the places and themes that matter to your holiday plans.

Discover more destinations: Téglás, Nyíradony, Nyíracsád.

Go to the main travel overview: Hajdúhadházi.